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Scott J. Johnson, 38, of Kingsford, Mich., returns to court today to enter pleas to three counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
He will plead not guilty to the charges and may also plead insanity, defense attorney Len Kachinsky said.
“We haven’t decided that yet,” the attorney said. “It is basically the client’s decision. We just have to talk about the issues of which doctors we might possibly want and whether the funding might come from the county or the state.”
Prosecutors say Johnson went to the Menominee River on July 31 and opened fire on a group of swimmers, killing three and injuring one, hid in the woods overnight and then turned himself in. He remains jailed in Wisconsin on a $3 million bail.
Kachinsky said Johnson does not have an “extensive record” of hospitalization for psychiatric illnesses.
“On the other hand, his behavior pattern of sort of isolation back in the family home after his divorce suggests he might have undiagnosed depression,” the attorney said. “That is not unusual, especially in men, for mental illnesses not to be diagnosed because men are just basically afraid to go to a psychiatrist because of the stigma and everything else.”
If he pleads insanity, Johnson would have to prove to a jury through medical experts that he didn’t know right from wrong on the day of the killings because he suffered a mental disease or defect.
Johnson’s mother, Judy Johnson, has said her son was honorably discharged from the Army in 1994 without serving overseas and has been unemployed. She described him as despondent since his wife left him in 2001 and took their two children with her.
The criminal complaint charging Johnson with the killings characterizes him as a disaffected man who had thought about committing a random shooting for four or five years. Johnson told investigators he stashed weapons in the woods at least a year ago in preparation.
Johnson has not undergone a mental competency examination and none is needed, Kachinsky said Wednesday.
“He is clearly competent. He knows and understands the charges against him. He is rather shell-shocked by this all,” the attorney said. “He is not real familiar with how the criminal justice system works. He is competent, intelligent and understands what is going on. He is distressed by it of course.”
Kachinsky said he expected prosecutors to file two more charges — attempted first-degree intentional homicide and sexual assault — against Johnson for today’s arraignment.
Marinette County District Attorney Brent DeBord has said those charges could be added but he did not immediately return a telephone message Thursday.
Johnson told police he sexually assaulted a 24-year-old woman at the river the day before the shooting, the complaint said.
Johnson will enter his pleas from jail via videoconference because of security concerns at the Marinette County Courthouse, Kachinsky said.
“I know some of the victims want to see him in person but I think for the same reasons they want to see him in person, we don’t want to see them in person,” he said.
In another development, organizers who want to construct a stone memorial honoring the slain teens near the site of the shooting say they have raised thousands of dollars in donations from mostly residents and businesses in Norway, Mich.
“First, we’ve got to excavate the land, then we’ve got to build the gazebo on the concrete so that we can put the stone on there,” said Dan Gyselinck of Norway. “And then after that, we’ll set a date, and everybody else is welcome to come.”
Tiffany Pohlson, 17, Anthony Spigarelli, 18, and Bryan Mort, 19, died in the shooting.
