BOULDER, Colo, Sept 24, (AP): A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was sentenced Monday to life in prison for murder after a jury rejected his attempt to avoid prison time by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. Victims’ relatives recounted in pained testimony the lives gunman Ahmad Alissa destroyed in the 2021 attack in the college town of Boulder.

"To the person that’s done this, we hope that you suffer for the rest of your life. You are a coward,” said Nikolena Stanisic, whose only sibling, Neven, was killed. "I hope this haunts the defendant until the end of time. The defendant deserves the absolute worst." Stanisic recalled going out to ice cream with her brother the night before he was shot and how he would sometimes help her with bills.

Their household - once filled with talk and laughter - is now mostly silent, she told the court. Defense attorneys did not dispute that Alissa, who has schizophrenia, fatally shot 10 people including a police officer. But they argued he was insane at the time of the attack and couldn’t tell right from wrong. He became the latest person to fail in an attempt to be acquitted by reason of insanity.

In addition to first-degree murder, the jury found Alissa guilty on 38 charges of attempted murder, one count of assault, and six counts of possessing illegal, large-capacity magazines. Judge Ingrid Bakke sentenced him to 10 consecutive life prison sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders and an additional 1,334 years for the other offenses.

"This was not about mental illness. This was about brutal, intentional violence,” District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. Alissa, now 25 years old, declined through his attorneys to make a statement during his sentencing. The courtroom was packed largely with victims’ families and police, including officers shot at by Alissa. Several members of Alissa’s family sat behind him.