FOX31 Denver

Judge: Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooter still mentally incompetent

Robert Lewis Dear addresses Judge Gilbert Martinez during a court appearance on Dec. 9, 2015 in Colorado Springs. (Photo: by Andy Cross-Pool/Getty Images)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A judge says a man who acknowledged killing three people at a southern Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic remains mentally incompetent to stand trial.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports the ruling came Friday during a routine review of Robert Dear‘s mental health. He was first found legally incompetent in May 2016.

Dear is charged with 179 counts, including murder and attempted murder, stemming from the 2015 shooting in Colorado Springs. He’s being held at the state mental hospital in Pueblo.

The next review is scheduled for April 26.

The hospital received permission in 2018 to forcefully medicate Dear, but state officials have refused to say whether that was underway, citing privacy rules.

State attorneys say the order permitting forced medication has expired and they will seek a new one.