UPDATE: Planned Parenthood shooting suspect ordered to undergo mental competency evaluation

A man who has acknowledged killing three people at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic says he wants to represent himself in legal proceedings.

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, told a judge in Colorado Springs on Wednesday that he wants to invoke his constitutional right to defend himself.

The judge told him to listen to the advice of his attorney. But Dear questioned how he could trust his attorney, Daniel King, after King suggested he wasn’t competent to stand trial. The judge cleared the courtroom so Dear and King could talk.

When court resumed, the judge ordered that Dear receive a mental competency evaluation at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. Dear said he would not cooperate with the evaluation.

Mental competency evaluations at CMHIP often take between six and nine months to complete.

Prosecution argued against the evaluation, saying Dear’s outbursts proved his competency because he talked about his constitutional rights and understood the charges against him.

District Attorney Dan May also brought up questions about Judge Gilbert Martinez. He wanted it put on record that Judge Martinez was involved in another case. He also wondered how the judge was appointed to this case when he was not next in rotation.

The judge told Dear he had the right not to answer any questions during the mental examination, but it could be used against him because the medical professional conducting the evaluation can still give an opinion on his competency even without answers.

District Attorney Dan May said the proceedings are on hold until the evaluation is completed.

“There aren’t many proceedings you can hold until you know the person understands what is going on in court, and that’s true at any stage,” May said. “We always are concerned the person understands what’s going on and can aid in their own defense.”

Mental health expert and former Department of Corrections psychologist Larry Nutter said while Dear may protest the evaluations, he will have to go through with them.

“At this point, a lot of his choices in this world no longer exist,” said Nutter.

Nutter said the judge can order that Dear be medicated if he continues to argue against the competency test.

A status hearing was scheduled for February 24 at 1:30 p.m.