Lawyers for a man who awaits trial for the fatal shooting of an Orlando Police Department officer in 2017 say they will use an insanity defense when the case goes to trial.
NBC affiliate WESH-TV reports that the attorneys for Markeith Loyd filed a notice in an Orange County circuit court saying that his mental state made him unaware what he was doing when Loyd allegedly shot Lt. Debra Clayton in the parking lot of a Walmart.
"The defendant suffered from a mental infirmity, disease or defect and because of this condition did not know what he was doing or its consequences,” the filing said in part.
Loyd allegedly killed Clayton as she was trying to arrest him in part for the deadly shooting of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon.
Jurors convicted Loyd last year on charges for Dixon’s murder and the death of her unborn child, recommending a sentence of life in prison without parole.
