West Liberty school shooting suspect pleads not guilty by insanity

The suspect in the West Liberty-Salem High School shooting has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ely Serna, through his attorney Dennis Lieberman, filed the plea by motions this week in Champaign County Common Pleas Court. The motion didn’t include any details as to why the defense believes Serna is not guilty by reason of insanity.

Lieberman declined to go into specifics in an interview with the Springfield News-Sun but said he believes his client was insane at the time of the shooting.

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“We filed a not guilty and not guilty by reason to explore his mental health conditions at the time,” he said.

Serna has been accused of bringing a shotgun to school on Jan. 20 and firing six shots. Another student, 17-year-old Logan Cole, was shot twice in the chest and survived.

Deputies have alleged Serna also shot at a teacher and then randomly shot at classrooms before he was detained by school staff. Another student was grazed by a shotgun pellet but not injured.

He’s charged with several felonies — two counts of attempted murder, three counts of felonious assault, six counts of improperly discharging a firearm, and single counts of inducing panic and illegal conveyance of a deadly weapon in a school.

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Lieberman also filed a motion to dismiss the case in adult court and transfer the case back to juvenile court. A juvenile judge moved the case to adult court earlier this month.

In the motion to move the case back, Lieberman argues proper procedure wasn’t followed before Champaign County Juvenile Judge Lori Reisinger ordered the transfer. Serna had waived his right to a probable cause hearing but did ask for an amenability hearing, according to the motion.

An amenability hearing reviews a juvenile offender’s likelihood of rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system.

Reisinger found there was probable cause in the case through a police report and ordered Serna to adult court without giving him an amenability hearing.

“It is a violation of due process of law for Ely Serna to be denied an amenability hearing,” the motion reads.

Throughout the last several months the Ohio Supreme Court has tried to decide what’s the proper process a juvenile should go through before being charged as an adult. That’s slowed local high-profile cases, including Springfield’s Nicholas Sterling, who was transferred to adult court and then sent back to juvenile court before being sent back to adult court.

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Lieberman argues in his motion that it was law on Jan. 20 — the day of the shooting at West Liberty-Salem High School — that a juvenile should get an amenability hearing and therefore his client is entitled to one because that’s when the alleged crimes occurred.

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