Defendant’s degree of psychosis argued at Times Square trial
A man accused of using his car to mow down people in Times Square made a deliberate choice to leave a path of death and destruction there in the spring of 2017, a prosecutor said Wednesday in closing arguments at a New York City trial that’s put an insanity defense to the test.
An attorney for Richard Rojas countered by calling his client a “lunatic” who was so mentally ill, it was impossible for him to know what he was doing that day.
Rojas, 31, is fighting murder, assault and other charges in an attack that killed a teen girl from Michigan, injured more than 20 other people and spread panic at the popular tourist destination. If a jury finds him guilty, it must also decide whether or not he “lacked responsibility by reason of mental disease or defect.”