The person charged with the murder of two individuals at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs (UCCS) in February has entered a plea of not guilty for the killings.
Additionally, the defendant has also denied charges of assaulting an officer while being held in custody. On Friday morning, Nicholas Jordan pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Judge David Shakes addressed two motions prior to the plea entry. The first motion requested a change of venue for the hearings, while the second motion aimed to remove Shakes as the judge for this case.
After careful consideration, Judge Shakes ruled that he will continue to preside over this case. Additionally, a hearing has been scheduled for January to discuss the motion for a change of venue.
Jordan’s defense attorney requested a later date to enter the plea, but Judge Shakes denied the request. As a result, Jordan proceeded to enter two not guilty pleas.
The defense team argued that the plea was pre-emptive, prompting the judge to grant permission for a change of plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity.
However, this change is contingent upon the defense gathering the necessary information to support an insanity plea by January 31st.
The trial for the murder allegations is scheduled to commence on April 7th and is expected to span over a period of two weeks.
Additionally, there will be a separate trial commencing on April 21st that will address the alleged assault of an officer during the defendant’s time in custody.
In February, the case unfolded when an individual contacted the UCCS Police Department to report a shooting in their dormitory pod at around 6 a.m. on Feb. 16. Law enforcement promptly arrived at the scene and discovered multiple spent handgun cartridge cases, along with the bodies of Samuel Knopp, 24, from Parker, and Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, from Pueblo, in one of the bedrooms.
Authorities immediately launched an investigation into Jordan as a potential suspect, although the shooter remained at large.
During a traffic stop in January, before the shooting incident, the police had already obtained information about Jordan’s vehicle. They were aware that he drove a black 2009 Ford Escape SUV and had knowledge of the car’s license plate number.
Jordan was arrested a few days later near the 4900 block of Cliff Point Circle East in Colorado Springs, shortly after the warrant for his arrest was issued on the same day as the shooting.
On February 20th, a judge raised his bond from $1 million to $5 million. In the following month, his defense attorneys asked for a mental competency evaluation. Shortly after, he appeared in court again on fresh charges linked to an alleged incident where he reportedly punched a deputy while in jail.
In mid-April, he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. Judge Shakes approved the prosecution’s request for a second evaluation of his competency, conducted by a doctor selected by the defense attorney. By August, the judge determined that he was now competent to stand trial, resulting in a two-part competency hearing.