Deborah Lennon pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Thursday to shooting her former supervisor at a U.S. Veterans Affairs office in Vancouver.
Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis on Thursday declared that Lennon is mentally fit to stand trial on attempted murder and other charges, after Lennon’s defense attorney announced that his mental health expert found that she is able to assist in her own defense.
Her trial is scheduled for July 14.
Mental health professionals at Western State Hospital in April concluded that Lennon is competent to stand trial. Lennon’s defense attorney, Steven Rucker, then requested a second opinion. He hired psychiatrist Dr. Jerry Larsen to evaluate Lennon, and Larsen reached the same conclusion as the state.
Under Washington law, defendants are competent to stand trial if they are able to assist in their own defense. A defendant may have a mental illness and still be found competent.
Lennon, 46, of Portland remains in the Clark County Jail on $1 million bail. She is charged with attempted murder, stalking, cyberstalking and first-degree assault.
Lennon is accused of walking into a fourth-floor office of the VA Northwest Health Network and shooting Chief Financial Officer Allen Bricker, 45, twice in the chest about 4 p.m. Feb. 4. His office is in the Center for Community Health building on the Veterans Affairs campus, 1601 E. Fourth Plain Blvd.
The shooting stopped when Veterans Affairs employee and former Marine Neil Burkhardt, 31, of Portland tackled Lennon and wrestled away her handgun, court documents say. He and other Veterans Affairs employees detained her until police arrived.
Lennon had worked in the office as a financial auditor until she quit about two years before. While she and Bricker were colleagues, she became infatuated with him, according to court records related to a protection order Bricker sought in January 2013.
Bricker, who did not return her affection, alleged that Lennon stalked him, according to court documents.
Protection orders
At Bricker’s request, District Court Commissioner Jeffrey Witteman issued two temporary protection orders. But he denied a request for a permanent protection order two months later, after Lennon had resigned her job and left the state. She said she was leaving because Bricker was married.
Bricker eventually gave up on seeking the protection order because he couldn’t find Lennon’s new address to serve the court papers, according to court records.
After living in Arizona for 15 months, Lennon returned.
She moved to her aunt’s home in Portland and purchased a firearm, said Deputy Prosecutor Dan Gasperino. She showed up at Bricker’s office two to three weeks before the shooting and was escorted off the property, court documents say. Afterward, employees said they installed locks on the back door of the office to prevent her from sneaking in.
Lennon wrote to Bricker sometimes several times a day, according to court records. Her emails allegedly professed her love, urged Bricker to leave his wife and included threats to kill him.
“She stalked me and my family for two years, where she promised to kill me and nearly accomplished it,” Bricker said in a victim impact statement filed in court.
Bricker continues to recover from a number of debilitating injuries from the attack, according to the victim impact statement.
He has bullet holes in both lungs, his liver and diaphragm. Bullets are still lodged in his spine and left chest muscle.
“I am extremely weak from nearly six weeks of being bedridden and am taking a number of medications to deal with pain and physical and mental symptoms,” he wrote.
