{"id":449399,"date":"2026-09-27T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/449399\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:00:26","slug":"man-accused-of-2023-shooting-spree-in-austin-san-antonio-could-file-insanity-plea-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/449399\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of 2023 shooting spree in Austin, San Antonio could file insanity plea \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790524826_961_.webp\" alt=\"Investigators enter the crime scene area on Austral Loop in Southwest Austin's Circle C neighborhood after the 2023 shooting.\"\/>Investigators enter the crime scene area on Austral Loop in Southwest Austin\u2019s Circle C neighborhood after the 2023 shooting.  (Patricia Lim | KUT)<\/p>\n<p>Shane James, the man who allegedly killed his parents in San Antonio before going on a shooting spree that left four people dead in Austin, intends to file an insanity plea, according to court filings this week.<\/p>\n<p>James\u2019 attorney on Wednesday indicated he plans to raise an \u201cinsanity defense\u201d at an upcoming trial in a Travis County court. James faces four counts of capital murder, along with counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder of a police officer.<\/p>\n<p>James allegedly killed his parents at their home in San Antonio in December 2023 before driving to Austin and killing <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kut.org\/crime-justice\/2023-12-13\/austin-shooting-victims-remembered\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">four people <\/a>in a shooting spree. He\u2019s also accused of shooting two police officers and a cyclist.<\/p>\n<p>James also faces capital murder charges in Bexar County. The accused shooter was deemed unfit to stand trial in October 2024. He was committed to a mental health facility until July 2025. James pleaded not guilty on all charges shortly after that.<\/p>\n<p>James, who previously served in the Army, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kut.org\/crime-justice\/2023-12-13\/alleged-texas-mass-shooter-shane-james-criminal-history-mental-illness\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">had a history<\/a> of mental health issues. He was arrested for assaulting family members in 2022 in Bexar County. He was also involuntarily detained in Austin in 2018 after he told police officers he was contemplating suicide. Police were also called to his family\u2019s Bexar County home in August 2023 after he had a mental health crisis and barricaded himself in a bathroom.<\/p>\n<p>James\u2019 attorney, Russell Hunt, Jr., filed the paperwork in all the cases associated with James\u2019 charges on Wednesday, indicating that he is \u201cto offer evidence of the insanity defense\u201d ahead of a trial. That jury trial is scheduled to start Oct. 26 in a Travis County court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investigators enter the crime scene area on Austral Loop in Southwest Austin\u2019s Circle C neighborhood after the 2023&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,4761,2441,294,6481,14519,223],"class_list":["post-449399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-police-department","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-kut","tag-mass-shootings","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}