An Uber driver has pleaded guilty to shooting six people dead in between passenger pick-ups.
Jason Dalton gunned down eight strangers at three locations across Kalamazoo, Michigan, on 20 February 2016. Six of the victims died from their injuries.
Yesterday, the 48-year-old “halted jury selection in his trial with surprise guilty pleas to six counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and eight counts of felony use of a firearm”, NBC reports.
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His lawyers had originally planned to argue for a not guilty verdict on grounds of insanity, but withdrew the request on Friday after an independent expert concluded that Dalton did not meet the requisite legal criteria.
Dalton, from Cooper Township, Michigan, initially told investigators that he believed the ride-hailing app was controlling his mind at the time of the shootings, claiming it had turned him into a “puppet”.
Throughout the deadly five-hour rampage, Dalton continued to pick up fares. The next morning, as police combed the city for the gunman, he got behind the wheel again.
CNN reports that one passenger noticed that the make and model of the car matched the description of the shooter’s, joking: “You're not the guy going around killing people are you?”
On Monday, Dalton’s attorney said that his client had decided to change his plea “against his advice”.
“It took me a little by surprise, because throughout our discussions he was intent on going to trial,” Eusebio Solis told local TV station WOOD-8.
“I think he was influenced these last few days by his family. He didn’t want to put his family through it as well as the family of the victims.”
Kalamazoo County prosecutor Jeff Getting said it was “unusual” for a defendant to plead guilty to first-degree premeditated murder, which carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, but said he was “relieved”.
“This is our best-case outcome. This is what’s best for the case and it’s certainly what’s best for our victims,” he said.
