Shane James trial: Day 7

Shane James back in court. Dr. Molly Michelle McClendon, a forensic psychologist, has seen James a dozen times. She believes he was insane at every shooting scene. Her testimony was off camera. She says James believes, quote, laser masters are controlling his mind and body. They target and harass him. He thinks he's a slave to these laser masters and they attack his eyes and semen. He believed laser masters were involved with his family to get him. She says in jail he's been fasting because voices tell him not to eat. Staff had to start tracking his food to make sure he was eating. Jail reports also say he would put his clothes in the toilet and then wear them wet. He was also not showering due to hallucinations. Dr. McClendon says his belief system incorporates people from his past named Peggy and Daryl that can control him through light. She said James also talked about escaping the grid. The doctor said there were times he'd walk away from home without shoes or water. He thinks there are tracking devices in his shoes. He typically walks north for days, even warning people at a church in Austin once about escaping the grid. He assigns meaning to random things, like when someone said flip-flop, it meant the cult was stalking him. He even talked about wanting to have his testicles removed, so it'd be one less way for the lasers to get to him. He actually made a urology appointment with the VA. The doctor there thought he wanted transgender surgery. All of this has affected his day-to-day functioning. Dr. McClendon said he masks the symptoms to others. The doctor doesn't think he knew the wrongfulness of each of the murders. He thought there were rubber bullets and didn't know the people were dead. At each scene, she described him not believing in reality, hearing voices, and believing there were signs to shoot people. He thought police were controlled by laser masters. Notably, he didn't shoot Sabrina Rothman's baby. In a journal entry, he wrote children are innocent and defenseless in an evil world. Dr. McClendon said after his treatment at a state hospital, the voices were easier to ignore and he had some realization that past hallucinations weren't there. She believes he still has some delusions, but that has improved. There are also things psychologists look out for to make sure someone isn't pretending to have symptoms to avoid prison time. She says symptoms that go back years instead of popping up around the time of a crime are a sign of not pretending. James wrote in his journals dating back to 2017 about these delusions.