Final testimony in Shane James trial

Two experts have different opinions on whether Shane James Jr. was sane or insane. He's on trial for killing his parents and four others during a shooting spree that spanned Austin and San Antonio back in 2023. Final witnesses are testifying in his trial. Fox 7 Austin's Angela Shen joining us live from the Travis County Courthouse with a closer look at the case. Angela. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, this trial is not about whether or not he committed the crimes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Angela. It's whether or not he knew right from wrong. Now, last week, the jury heard from a psychologist that the defense called that said she said that she thinks he didn't know what he was doing was wrong. But today, the state called a psychiatrist who drew a different conclusion. The trial of Shane James comes down to if he knew right from wrong. Dr. Maureen Burroughs, a forensic psychiatrist, says she agrees with the defense's psychologist that James has schizophrenia, but she does not believe he was insane. My opinion was that when he committed the offenses on December 5th, that he, even though he had schizophrenia, knew right from wrong and was sane. She explained the legal statute for insanity in Texas says at the time of the offense, because of mental illness, the defendant didn't know their conduct was wrong. But having a severe mental illness doesn't necessarily equal insanity. James at the defendant's table seemed interested at the legal definition of insanity. Dr. Burroughs says despite James having delusions of laser masters, when she asked him why he did things, he had conscious reasoning of his crimes. For example, after killing his parents, he waited to see police at the neighborhood entrance. Then he went back to his parents' house and moved his dad's body to try to prevent his brother from seeing it. Then he took money from his mom's purse and filled the dog bowls with water. He's evading detection by police. He knows he's done some sort of crime that would have police come to the scene. Whether it's his parents or not, he knows he has killed somebody and that is wrong. Dr. Burroughs explained switching cars throughout the day to avoid detection by police, thinking Sabrina Rahman was going to call the police, covering Catherine Short's blood with a shirt, were all signs that he knew the consequences of his actions. In the interview room at Austin Police Headquarters, he didn't have any bizarre behavior and gave clear answers until getting defensive when asked about his parents. When I see somebody either ask for an attorney or end a conversation when it starts veering into actual crime. It is concerning to me that they are processing that talking about this could be used against them and that they know what they did was wrong. Somebody who's insane would be like, oh my God, the laser masters did this. I'm so glad you picked me up. And the jury heard closing arguments in the afternoon. They started deliberating about five ish minutes ago. So we will see how this goes back to you.