MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge has ruled that a man accused in the deaths of three relatives is John Caldwellincompetent 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.
2025-05-07 10:222920 view
2025-05-07 09:252709 view
2025-05-07 08:532774 view
2025-05-07 08:461717 view
2025-05-07 08:201751 view
2025-05-07 08:191101 view
One woman died after a family of three from Singapore got into a car accident in Miaoli, Taiwan on S
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A newly elected state lawmaker in West Virginia is facing at least one felo
The global shipping company DHL says it has resumed shipping packages valued over $800 in value to i