Alleged Kennesaw Shooter Can't be Forced to Medicate

Credit: Cobb County Sheriff’s Office

The man who allegedly killed three people when he opened fire in a Kennesaw truck rental business in 2010 cannot be forced to take medications meant to allow him to stand trial for murder, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Jesse James Warren had been ordered to take antipsychotic medication in 2014 by Cobb County Judge Mary E. Staley with the hopes of returning Warren to mental fitness so he could stand trial, the Marietta Daily Journal says. In Monday’s ruling, the high court said Staley’s order was invalid because it didn’t specify what medications Warren would be forced to take, nor did it address the dosage needed, the length of time he would spend medicated, and failed to establish oversight procedures.

Warren is accused of shooting up the Penske Truck Rental and Leasing Service on Jan. 12, 2010. Jaider Felipe Marulanda, 43, of Lawrenceville; Robert Gonzalez, 31, of Dallas, Ga.; and Vance Springer, 59, of Woodstock, were killed in the shootings. Two others, Joshua Holbrook of Cartersville and Zachariah Werner of Marietta, were injured, according to the MDJ. Werner died from his wounds in 2013, weeks after Warren was to stand trial.

Cobb County prosecutors told the MDJ that the high court’s ruling would set a precedent with respects to court-ordered medication programs because it laid out specific criteria that needed to be met in order for such programs to be legal.