{"id":112722,"date":"2026-01-10T04:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T04:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112722\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T04:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T04:32:25","slug":"trial-delayed-as-orlando-halloween-shooting-suspect-to-get-2nd-evaluation-can-explore-insanity-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112722\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial delayed as Orlando Halloween shooting suspect to get 2nd evaluation, can explore insanity defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A hearing that was meant to precede jury selection Thursday in the murder trial of Jaylen Edgar<\/a> took a turn, resulting in the trial being delayed as Edgar will now be allowed to explore an insanity defense and will undergo a second mental evaluation.<\/p>\n

Edgar is accused of murder in a mass shooting in downtown Orlando<\/a>. Police said he opened fire in a crowd of people celebrating Halloween in 2024, killing two of them \u2014 25-year-old Tyrek Hill<\/a> and 19-year-old Timothy Schmidt Jr.<\/a> \u2014 and wounding seven others. <\/p>\n

Now 18, Edgar was 17 years old when he arrested and charged as an adult.<\/p>\n

Edgar was denied by a judge on Wednesday after requesting to remove his court-appointed attorney as representation<\/a>. He faces charges of possession of a firearm by a minor, culpable negligence with personal injury, two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

[WATCH: Families of Orlando Halloween mass shooting victims file suit \u2018to get answers\u2019]<\/p>\n

[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it\u2019s FREE)<\/a> | PINIT! Share your photos<\/a>] <\/p>\n

Ahead of Wednesday\u2019s hearing, Edgar sent a handwritten letter to the judge to claim conflict of counsel and to urge a second mental-health evaluation \u201cto explore the reasonable hypothesis of incompetency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, in the state\u2019s efforts to force-feed a 50-year plea deal down my throat opposed to the threat of natural life in the department of corrections, my attorney has deliberately failed to include reasonable hypothesis of my mental state of psychosis during the alleged commission of the crime,\u201d Edgar wrote.<\/p>\n

Judge Keith Carsten on Wednesday denied Edgar\u2019s request to discharge his court-appointed attorney, suggesting he was unable to effectively demonstrate that they were providing ineffective counsel.<\/p>\n

[MORE: Judge denies Orlando Halloween shooting suspect\u2019s effort to ditch attorney]<\/p>\n

During a Richardson hearing Thursday morning, Carsten ruled the prosecution committed a discovery violation related to the late disclosure of witnesses and fingerprint analysis on the magazine of a gun that was allegedly used in the shooting. The judge also clarified that Edgar could assert a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, prompting prosecutors to ask for a continuance that was then given.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also requested that the judge order a mental-health evaluation by a doctor recommended by the state, which was also granted.<\/p>\n

Further, a \u201cReview of Counsel\u201d motion filed Thursday by Edgar\u2019s defense states his counsel \u201cshould not be allowed to continue either by a court order removing counsel or through a motion to withdraw for conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A hearing that was meant to precede jury selection Thursday in the murder trial of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[265,4823,56049,1933,1335,139,19478,141,140],"class_list":["post-112722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-crime","tag-fatal-shooting","tag-jaylen-edgar","tag-murder","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-halloween-mass-shooting","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}