NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The hearing for the Antioch Waffle House shooter continued this week as his attorneys work to prove that his previous legal team failed him, and the loved ones of those killed in the shooting spoke.
A hearing for Travis Reinking started Monday morning in Nashville. His attorneys aim to prove that Reinking’s previous legal team failed him by not proving that he was insane when he killed 29-year-old Taurean Sanderlin, 20-year-old Joey Perez, 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva, and 21-year-old DeEbony Grove on April 22, 2018. The majority of Monday’s hearing included testimony from forensic psychiatrist Dr. Shawn Agharkar, who had spent time evaluating Reinking while in prison.
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On Thursday, attorneys for Reinking pointed to potential errors made during the first trial. Defense attorney David Raybin was called to the stand, who testified about instructions given to the jury — namely, that the jury was instructed to first decide guilt or innocence before deciding Reinking’s sanity. Raybin called the law “pretty clear” in that juries are presumed to follow the judge’s instructions.
“You don’t bifurcate those decisions because the mental health — the definitions of premeditation and all that — have a lot to do with the defendant’s state of mind,” Raybin testified. “So theoretically, the jury could have just walked in there to say, ‘Well, he’s insane. We’re gone. We’re done. We don’t even have to consider anything else.’”…