Overview
- Prosecutors and defense lawyers opened the Travis County capital murder trial this week with sharply different accounts of James’s mind before the Dec. 4–5, 2023 shootings that began at his family home in Kirby and continued in Austin.
- The defense says James has long suffered schizophrenia and delusions, including beliefs in so‑called “laser masters,” and will argue those delusions left him unable to tell right from wrong.
- The state plans to call about 35 witnesses and experts who it says will testify James was sane at the time of the Austin killings and understood his acts were illegal.
- Courtroom evidence now being presented includes hundreds of handwritten pages and notes found on James’s bedroom walls, body‑camera video, forensic analyses of shell casings and vehicles, and eyewitness testimony including the wounded Austin ISD officer.
- James was found incompetent to stand trial in 2024, was treated and had competency restored in 2025, and a separate Travis County jury recently affirmed he is competent to face the capital trial that could lead to life without parole if he is convicted.