MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge has ruled that a man accused in the deaths of three relatives is verdicoinincompetent to stand trial, citing the man’s “hyper-religious” belief that God is telling him to plead guilty.
David Ekers, 38, was charged with three counts of second-degree intentional murder for pipe wrench attacks in July 2020 in suburban Minneapolis that killed his sister, mother and grandmother.
But last week, Hennepin County Judge Julia Dayton Klein ordered Ekers to remain in a state security hospital indefinitely, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Wednesday. The commitment order said Ekers told a doctor he planned to plead guilty “because I think Matthew 5 says, ‘you should settle with your accuser quickly.’ … It’s not that I want to go to prison or anything. It’s that I’m trying to follow what God says.”
The doctor determined that Ekers “was unable to consider what is in his best interest in light of his hyper-religious delusional rigidity, illogical and disorganized thought process and confusion, all of which are reflective of psychotic symptoms,” the order read.
Ekers was previously committed to the state institution on a court order that said he was schizophrenic in part because of years of consuming high-caffeine energy drinks.
2025-05-06 18:02654 view
2025-05-06 17:52883 view
2025-05-06 17:191258 view
2025-05-06 17:121879 view
2025-05-06 16:591784 view
2025-05-06 16:461550 view
For 48-year-old Rowan Childs of Wisconsin, a recent divorce turned her financial life upside down. "
Aircraft laser strike reports soared to a record high in 2023, jumping 40% from the previous year, t
And then there was one.The Seattle Seahawks have hired Mike Macdonald, 36, as their new head coach.