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The gunman who opened fire and killed two of his classmates and wounded four others in a shooting at the University of North Carolina Charlotte in April pleaded guilty to murder recently and received two life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

During the sentencing hearing Sept. 19, a motive emerged as attorneys said the shooter, Trystan Andrew Terrell, wanted to go to prison to avoid paying off mounting student loan debt, according to several local news reports.

Also, the shooter’s attorney said Terrell has “a strain of autism,” WCNC reported.

On April 30, Terrell entered a classroom in Kennedy Hall and emptied his handgun clip into a defenseless classroom of students. The four students who were injured are Sean DeHart, Drew Pescaro, Rami Alramadhan, and Emily Houpt, and two others who were killed are Riley Howell and Ellis “Reed” Parlier.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the 22-year-old perpetrator was identified as a former student of UNC Charlotte who had withdrawn from classes earlier in the spring semester.

He had been charged with four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, possession of a firearm on an educational property and discharging a firearm on an educational property, the New York Times reported.

As Terrell’s case made its way through the court system, it was heavily debated whether or not he was mentally competent to be sentenced to the death penalty, as his diagnosis of autism was argued to make this punishment violate his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment, the Charlotte Observer reported.

“His sentencing has divided prosecutors, the victims and their families over whether a man diagnosed with autism and developmental disabilities should face the death penalty,” the Observer reported. “As part of his deal with prosecutors, Terrell entered a guilty plea that will keep him behind bars without the possibility of parole, but he won’t face the death penalty.”

In the weeks after the shooting, some students on campus discussed the shooter, recalling his inability to communicate well and relate socially. In the sentencing hearing, Terrell’s voice sounded as if he has some sort of speech impediment as he said “I’m so sorry, I made a mistake.”

His demeanor in court in September appeared vastly different than how he acted on the day of the shooting, telling a journalist as he was arrested: “I went into a classroom and shot some guys.”

But the DA’s decision to accept the plea deal and give him life in prison was met with mixed reactions, and sparked quite a bit of controversy on campus, with several students voicing anger.

This sentiment was also echoed by many on campus. Conversations in classrooms and among social clubs often included students who said they felt the shooter’s actions warranted the death penalty.

A South Carolina teen who was 13 years old when he stabbed his mother to death has been sentenced to 23 years in an adult prison for the crime.

Miguel Cano apologized at the Greenville County courthouse Monday for the "horrible, evil thing" he did to his mother in their Simpsonville home in September 2015.

Isabel Zuluaga, 44, was stabbed in the chest, face and neck. One stab wound went all the way through her chest and into the mattress she was laying on in her son's room, Solicitor Walt Wilkins said.
Wilkins asked for a significant sentence because Cano, now 17, told investigators he planned the brutal attack and thought about killing other people, too.

"There are many people that my crime impacted very negatively, and to you I am sorry. I am not happy to have hurt you. Some have lost a good friend. Others, a good family member, and I am ashamed to have caused it," Cano said, according to media reports.

Cano's lawyers said he had trouble controlling his emotions and was diagnosed with autism after his arrest. They had sought to have him found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

A judge ruled last year that Cano could be tried as an adult on a murder charge, which carried a possible sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Prosecutors accepted a plea deal to voluntary manslaughter, which carried two to 30 years behind bars. If Cano had been tried and convicted as a juvenile, he couldn't have been kept in prison after he turned 21.

Public Defender Christopher Scalzo asked for a 13-year sentence because of Cano's age and autism.

A man felt like he was "in a movie" when he used a chainsaw to kill a former councillor, a court has heard.

Jonathan Stasiuk, 60, said he had no control over his actions as he attacked Gerry White, 73, at Lake Community Gardens on the Isle of Wight in May.

Southampton Crown Court heard a diagnosis of autism has helped him understand his actions.

Mr Stasiuk, of Sandown, denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The court heard one psychiatrist diagnosed the defendant with autism following the attack and another suggested he has only "autistic traits".

The defendant said hearing expert evidence about autism during the trial had helped him to "understand the decisions" he made that day.

Asked what he made of the diagnosis, Mr Stasiuk said: "I found it very hard to believe.

"I have been to university, I had quite a high intelligence - it just never occurred to me."

The mother of a young woman who killed her boyfriend with a kitchen knife hopes her daughter will have her conviction overturned this week in the wake of the Sally Challen case, by arguing that doctors missed her autism.

Emma-Jayne Magson, 27, will on Tuesday appeal against her conviction of murdering James Knight, 26, in March 2016, in light of new evidence that she is on the autism spectrum and has a borderline personality disorder.

Devon Arthurs, the one-time neo-Nazi accused in the murders of his two roommates at their New Tampa townhouse, has autism and schizophrenia among other conditions, several mental health experts testified Thursday.

But the doctors who have examined him differed in their opinions about whether Arthurs can face trial.

Two experts who examined him earlier this year said he is competent to proceed in court. Three others, whose exams occurred more recently, said he is not.

A judge will have to decide who is correct. If Arthurs is deemed incompetent, he could return to the Florida State Hospital, where he already spent a year undergoing mental health treatment.

Arthurs, 20, was not present for the hearing, which lasted more than three hours.

On the witness stand in a Tampa courtroom, two defense experts described his condition in detail.

Psychiatrist Michael Maher testified that he has examined Arthurs four separate times, including three exams this year. He has consistently deemed him to be incompetent to face trial.

Maher gave Arthurs a primary diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, with underlying symptoms of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism.

When asked open-ended questions, Maher noted, Arthurs quickly got distracted, his speech becoming unintelligible. He experienced auditory hallucinations — voices that criticize and accuse him. He believes he can communicate with his dead roommates and that he can feel and smell things related to the shootings.

The doctor also noted an alarming pattern of habitual self-injury. Every few minutes during the doctor’s visits, Arthurs would wrap his hands around his own neck and squeeze until his head dropped into his hands and he began to lose consciousness. The behavior was so frequent that Arthurs had what the doctor described as stretch marks on his skin.

The doctor characterized the behavior as involuntary and compulsive.

Since he was sent to the Florida State Hospital, Arthurs has been heavily medicated with antipsychotic drugs.

He understands that bad things could happen to him in the judicial system, but believes it would be the result of “powerful background forces,” Maher said. He has a limited ability to communicate rationally with his attorneys.

Yolanda Leon, a neuropsychologist, opined that Arthurs has schizophrenia, but that autism is what makes him incompetent.

Arthurs professed a recent conversion to Christianity. But Leon said his knowledge of the faith is minimal. When asked about specific Bible stories, he seemed to have a poor understanding of them. At the time of the crime, Arthurs professed adherence to Islam, but seemed to have a shallow understanding of that faith. Before that, he was affiliated with a small group of neo-Nazis known as the Atomwaffen Division.

Leon opined that Arthurs remains incompetent and is incapable of being restored to competency. If that’s correct, it means there is no way Arthurs could be made well enough to face a criminal trial.

Leon described his condition as akin to having a severe intellectual disability: There is no way to change it. She said the best course would be for Arthurs to be placed in a mental health facility.

Arthurs is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the May 19, 2017, shootings of Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18. He also faces kidnapping charges, accused of holding several people at gunpoint after the killings in a nearby smoke shop.

Witnesses said Arthurs rambled about Islam before Tampa police arrived and convinced him to surrender. After his arrest, he told police his roommates were dead in their townhouse.

In an interrogation, he told detectives he shot the pair because they were neo-Nazis and they had ridiculed his conversion to Islam. The families of the victims denied they harbored such beliefs.

As police processed the crime scene, they discovered a stash of bomb-making materials in an attached garage. The explosives belonged to a fourth roommate, Brandon Russell, who was said to be the leader of the Atomwaffen Division group. Russell later pleaded guilty to federal charges and is serving a five-year prison sentence.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Laura Ward made no decision about Arthurs’ competency Thursday. A continuation of the hearing was scheduled for January.

A U.S. judge Tuesday sentenced a socially awkward math whiz-turned-futures trader who earned tens of millions of dollars over several years and helped trigger a U.S. stock market “flash crash” from his parents’ suburban London home to time served and a year's home confinement, sparing him imprisonment after prosecutors praised his cooperation and said his crimes were entirely unmotivated by greed.

Government prosecutors and defense lawyers described the 41-year-old Navinder Singh Sarao as autistic in memos filed before sentencing in Chicago federal court. They highlighted Sarao's savant - like ability to spot numerical patterns in split seconds, saying he regarded trading as a video game in which the object was to compile points not money.

The sudden tanking of shares on May 6, 2010, earned Sarao nearly a million dollars and temporarily wiped billions of dollars off the value of publicly traded companies, denting investor confidence and leaving many wondering if the market was rigged.

Despite earning some $70 million as a trader over several years, Sarao often ate at McDonald's using discount coupons. His priciest purchase as a multi-millionaire was a second-hand Volkswagen that cost under $10,000. His modest lifestyle has altered little from his days as an active trader, living today on $336 in British government benefits.

Before U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall imposed a sentence, Sarao apologized to those he harmed with his market manipulation, and he expressed remorse for the trauma his prosecution put his family through.

“I will never do anything illegally again,” he said.

Defense attorney Roger Burlingame described his client as a "singularly sunny, childlike, guileless, trusting person who is instantly beloved by all who encounter him, including the FBI agents and prosecutors."

"Navinder Sarao lives outside the reality those without his autism inhabit," Burlingame added in his filing.

Before his own indictment, Sarao himself lost millions in assets to fraudsters who found him uniquely gullible and easy to cheat, his lawyer said.

Home confinement may not be much of a departure from Sarao's typical life. He has lived in the same small room with his parents in Hounslow, United Kingdom, since childhood, rarely venturing out, in part due to his inability to complete the simplest everyday tasks, including doing laundry, Burlingame said.

Sarao spent four months in a British prison — the time Judge Kendall referred to as served — after a grand jury indicted him in Chicago in 2015. A U.S. judge later granted him bond, secured by his parents' home, which allowed Sarao to return to Britain as criminal proceedings in the United States played out.

Sarao, his lawyer said, prefers the company of children and is obsessed with animals, repeatedly enlisting his lawyer's help to convince his parents to let him keep rabbits. He fantasizes about setting up a home for unwanted pets but has no practical ability to make those plans a reality, Burlingame told the court.

After his extradition to Illinois in 2016, Sarao promptly agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and spoofing, which refers to bidding with the intent of quickly canceling the bid to manipulate prices. And within weeks, he returned all his illegal profits — more than $12 million.

He also walked prosecutors step-by-step through how he — and others — employed lightning fast programs to buy and sell in milliseconds, scooping up quickly-accumulating profits. His attorney said Sarao was motivated in part to begin using the techniques himself because he spotted how so many others were cheating the system.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors agreed that imprisoning Sarao would be pointless, heralding the cooperation he pledged to provide in his plea deal, saying his "extraordinary" cooperation and insights have helped catch other market manipulators.

His lawyers said the time Sarao spent in jail in Britain was "unbearable" because of his autism, saying it amounted to "a torture of sensory stimulation, sleep deprivation and forced socialization," and that he became suicidal. They said they were concerned that Sarao may not be able to survive another stint behind bars.

The 2015 indictment said Sarao manipulated E-Mini S&P, which helped spark the 2010 “flash crash” when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 600 points in just five minutes before rebounding. Sarao allegedly earned around $900,000 in profit on that one day, according to court documents.

The defense team for Jeremy Christian, the man accused of stabbing three men aboard a MAX train, continued its case Tuesday by bringing in a forensic psychologist who testified he diagnosed Christian with autism spectrum disorder.

However, that same expert said ASD "cannot fully account for or explain his behavior on the MAX train."

Christian is accused of going on a hateful rant aimed at two black teen girls aboard that TriMet MAX train on May 26, 2017. An altercation followed between Christian and two other men, Micah Fletcher and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, and quickly escalated.

Prosecutors say Christian took a 4-inch knife from the pocket of his shorts and stabbed Fletcher, Namkai-Meche and another passenger, Ricky Best. Best and Namkai-Meche died. Fletcher was gravely wounded, but survived. The knife barely missed a main artery that would have killed him.

Tuesday, clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Glena Lynne Andrews testified, saying she was asked to evaluate whether Christian had prenatal exposure to alcohol, whether a shooting to the face when he was younger affected his cognitive functioning, and about his cognitive function overall.

She said she met Christian on three separate occasions, two of which happened on the same day.

"Jeremy has executive functioning dysfunction. His frontal lobes and how his brain works to make decisions to function in the world, to assess surroundings is not where we’d expect it to be," Dr. Andrews said.

She said Christian's intellect levels overall were normal, but said there are areas he struggles more than most people.

"When I ask him to define words, he does fine. When I ask him to compare and contrast words and tell me similarities, he’s unable to do that in a normal range. He knows how to define words but doesn’t know how those words are related as they become more abstract," she said.

Referencing the 11 to 12 seconds it took for Christian to stab three men, the defense asked Dr. Andrews if that amount of time is enough for Christian to process the decisions he's made.

"No," she answered. "He's not a multi-tasker, he can’t think of two things at the same time and he can’t do two things at the same time."

Dr. Andrews also testified it does not appear as though Christian's mother had used drugs or alcohol while being pregnant with Christian. She said Christian has an IQ of 98, which is classified as average.

In a cross-examination, prosecutor Jeff Howes drilled down on cognitive test scores Dr. Andrews gave to Christian during her examinations.

His scores for most tests Dr. Andrews gave him fell into an "average" scale, aside from a handful of tests where he scored a low-average or below average, compared to his peers.

Howes asked Dr. Andrews whether these results were "remarkable." She answered the results were normal. Howes then asked Dr. Andrews if she was aware the scope of the trial encompasses "more than" just 10 to 12 seconds of an event, another reference to the time it took Christian to stab three men.

Dr. Andrews was told by the judge not to answer the question. Dr. Andrews added Christian tends to fixate on what he thinks is the correct response, and even when he got feedback he didn’t seem to be able to correct it.

In tracing back Christian's life, Dr. Andrews said elementary school records for Christian have been destroyed, and he only made it to ninth grade before he dropped out of school, despite having good grades.

However, he got his GED and went to community college -- a fact Howes said shows Christian's ability to function in the outside world. Christian also spent 4 years working at a Portland pizza shop.

Next, forensic psychologist Dr. Timothy Derning took the stand, and said Christian has a complicated and dysfunctional family history. He testified he diagnosed Christian with autism spectrum disorder, and said Christian isn't good at "intricate parts" of social dialogue.

"He bulldozes you with stuff," Dr. Derning said.

Referencing the time Christian spent in prison after a robbery, Dr. Derning called him a "damaged person."

This was followed by prosecutor Don Rees' cross-examination. Rees read through claims in Dr. Derning's report on Christian.

"You write, 'autism spectrum disorder cannot fully account for or explain [Christian's] behavior on the MAX train … [there are] other factors at play, including drinking alcohol or perhaps any other drugs, or being in prison, or possibly having a PTSD flash back,'" Rees said.

Dr. Derning confirmed that report, and added he did not diagnose Christian with PTSD, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

Testimony of Dr. Derning will continue Wednesday.

Both doctors admitted they had trouble getting background on Christian. Two of his three brothers refused to be interviewed, and Christian's elementary school records have been destroyed.

An autistic Adelaide teenager has walked free from court after being sentenced for carrying a pipe bomb on a public bus in what a psychiatrist reported could have been an act of "bravado" to make friends.

Key points:
The 17-year-old was initially charged with nine offences including endangering life
He pleaded guilty to several charges, including possessing an explosive substance
He has been sentenced to 16 months' youth detention, with the last four months suspended
District Court Judge Barry Beazley sentenced the 17-year-old boy — who cannot be named for legal reasons — to 16 months' youth detention after he pleaded guilty to four offences, including possessing an explosive device in a public place.

The boy had served almost 12 months in detention since his arrest in March 2019.

Judge Beazley suspended the four-month balance of the sentence on the condition he be of good behaviour for two years.

It allowed him to walk from court today with his parents.

He said the boy was young, had no previous criminal convictions and was autistic.

The court has previously heard that the boy did not fully appreciate how the community would react to his crimes and only gained insight once his arrest featured on a news report.

"You had constructed an explosive device by following a list of instructions found in your possession," Judge Beazley said.

"You assembled all the components required to construct a functional explosive device and that was constructed by you in a very competent manner.

"This was not some terrorist-like device containing shrapnel. It was a basic device."

Judge Beazley said the boy had no intention to detonate the device, and believed he had complete control of the device when it was on the bus in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

"Your offending was potentially very serious because your design enabled you to carry it distances hidden on your body. It was, however, well constructed and unlikely to accidentally explode," he said.

"No one knows why you constructed the device, probably not even yourself. It could be many reasons.

He said the boy showed the device to one of his former friends and he was shocked at her reaction — that she was distressed rather than impressed.

"Because of the disorder, you couldn't understand why she would have been distressed," he said.

"From your point of view, you believed you were always in control of the device so it wouldn't explode accidentally."

He said the girl suggested he go home and remove it from his jacket, before the pair travelled together on the bus and he dismantled it once at home.

Judge Beazley said the boy had "limited social connections" at the time.

"Despite being bullied by others at school, your most enjoyable time appears to have been with a small group of friends at primary school," he said.

"You lost contact with them when they commenced secondary education at different schools."

He urged the boy to forget his former friends and encouraged him to make new ones.

Judge Beazley said he had a "discretion" about whether the boy should be sentenced as a youth or an adult.

He decided to sentence the boy as a youth given he did not intend to harm anyone, had no previous criminal history and lack of insight due to his autism disorder.

Lawyers for the ex-Springboro gym teacher facing 36 felony sex charges stemming from alleged acts on his first-grade students want to disprove his sexual gratification through evidence showing he is autistic.

John Austin Hopkins’ lawyers indicate they plan to call Frederick Peterson, a local psychologist, to testify on “a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder which has a significant bearing on the main issue in this case of sexual gratification,” according to a motion filed in the case.

The trial of Hopkins, 25, of Springboro is scheduled to begin Monday.

He is accused of gross sexual imposition involving 28 first-grade girls during his gym class at Clearcreek Elementary School from December 2018 to March 2019.

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell declined to comment on the autism defense. He said prosecutors objected to questions that were “editorial in nature”.

The trial of Hopkins, 25, of Springboro is scheduled to begin Monday.

He is accused of gross sexual imposition involving 28 first-grade girls during his gym class at Clearcreek Elementary School from December 2018 to March 2019.

Prosecutors have indicated they plan to call up to 28 parents during the trial in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

School surveillance video from Hopkins’ classroom, hours of which were reviewed before the charges were filed, is expected to be a major aspect of the prosecution’s case.

Video evidence shows Hopkins putting his “bare hand up multiple children’s shirts,” a skirt, “nuzzling into the neck of several children” and “spreading several children’s legs to have the children straddle his crotch,” according to a prosecutors’ memorandum.

As many as five of the alleged victims have been selected to testify. Forensic specialists who interviewed the first graders are also expected to testify for the prosecution and be challenged by the defense.

Hopkins, a graduate of Sprngboro school and son of a longtime Springboro teacher, also coached swimming at Coffman Y in Springboro, prior to the case.

He is wearing an electronic monitor while on house arrest at his parents’ home.

A lawsuit filed against the school district, employees and Hopkins on behalf of some of the 88 families with children whose videos with Hopkins were presented to a grand jury is stalled in federal court.

If convicted, Hopkins faces up to five years in prison on each charge.

A psychologist who testified for the defense says a former Springboro gym teacher accused of molesting students has autism and is not a pedophile.

Jurors saw multiple video clips this week showing first-grade girls sitting on Hopkins' lap while Hopkins touched them inappropriately. The jury will have to decide whether Hopkins' actions were for sexual gratification.
Dr. Fred Peterson, a clinical psychologist, examined Hopkins. He said he concluded that Hopkins is on the high end of the autism spectrum.

"This is a gentleman that had exceedingly high needs, for emotional and affectionate needs to be met, and the behaviors that I saw on the video were not sexual in nature but an attempt to get those needs met," Peterson said.

Peterson said Hopkins has an undefined sexuality.

"What it means is they have an incredible lack of what's called "SA," situational awareness, that they do not understand social cues in terms of how other people are interpreting their behavior or awareness, insight into their own behavior," Peterson said.

Peterson said Hopkins' behavior in the video clips is not based on a pedophiliac disorder but a combination of three primary factors.

Those factors are [A,] the implications, behavioral implications, of autistic spectrum disorder and all the ramifications in different domains of his life that play out there ; B, not having an established sexual identity and having a gross sexual naivete that confuses him about sexual behavior; and C, not being prepared as an educator (and) being put in an educator's position," Peterson said.

During cross-examination, assistant Warren County prosecutor Julie Kraft said that the psychological testing Peterson conducted indicated that Hopkins had sexual interest in girls as young as 6 years old and no sexual interest in boys.

I don’t care what the courts say, an autism defense is NO EXCUSE for that kind of behavior, especially from a teacher.

When I tried to get my teacher certification (and failed to do so), almost 40 years ago, the first thing that got drilled into our thick skulls was to keep your hands to yourself, keep your schvance in your pants, and keep a distance physically, mentally and emotionally, from your students.

A COCAINE dealer was spared going straight into prison after a judge heard he suffers from Asperger's and ADHD.

Declan Fabius Carr, 22, from Newport, walked free from court after he was handed a suspended jail term and made the subject of a curfew.

Bethan Evans, prosecuting, said the defendant was caught trafficking the class A drug near a block of flats in the Malpas area of the city.

She told Cardiff Crown Court how Carr was spotted by plain clothed police dealing from a “man bag” at Oliphant Circle last June.

The defendant tried to escape on a motorbike but the vehicle fell to the floor and he was arrested after a foot race.

Carr was found with drugs, which had a purity of 51 per cent and a £300 street value, £80 in cash and three mobile phones.

The defendant, of Helford Square, Bettws, admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply and being concerned in the supply of cannabis and cocaine.

Miss Evans said the phones were analysed and contained messages from customers such as: “I know I owe you, but can I get a bag of sniff on tick until tomorrow?”

The judge, Recorder Mark Powell QC, was told Carr had no previous convictions.

Ben Waters, mitigating, said his client suffered from Asperger's and ADHD and asked for the defendant to be given maximum credit for his early guilty pleas.

His barrister added: “He was a cannabis user and got into debt. He was persuaded to supply class A drugs.”

Recorder Powell told Carr, an unemployed young father, that he could just about spare him an immediate jail sentence.

He said: “Suffering from Asperger’s is not an excuse, but it is a mitigating factor.

“I must also bear in mind that you have never been in trouble before.”

The judge added: “You are extremely lucky that the pre-sentence report was as favourable as it was.”

He jailed Carr for two years, suspended for 18 months, and he was made the subject of a three-month curfew between 8pm and 6am.

The defendant must also undertake a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement and pay a victim surcharge.

A judge sentenced a former Springboro teacher to eight years in prison on Wednesday.

Hopkins molested 28 first grade girls at Clearcreek Elementary School. His actions were caught on surveillance video. He would nuzzle and kiss the girls, along with putting his hands on their thighs and other body parts and inside of their shirts.

Hopkins had told police he only gave side hugs and high fives. During his trial, prosecutors noted he didn't treat the first-grade boys the same way.

His defense attorneys said he was on the autism spectrum at the time of his trial.

Craig Wright, the man who proclaims himself Satoshi Nakamoto, will not be subject to court sanctions and has been cleared to present an expert witness in support of his autism claim, when the Kleiman case proceeds to jury trial in two weeks.

According to court documents filed June 24, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom has ruled against a motion the Kleiman legal team filed on May 21 requesting sanctions be imposed rather than proceeding to trial, in response to their claims Wright “committed perjury, produced forgeries, and engaged in judicial abuse”.

Though Judge Bloom concedes the Kleiman team had raised allegations of “unsettling issues” concerning Wright’s credibility and behavior, she ultimately ruled that all the claims “are best suited for a jury to make as fact finder at trial” and are not a reason for the court to impose sanctions.

Autism defense over Wright’s ‘inconsistent statements’
In response to the modified omnibus motion put forth by Kleiman’s legal team in May, Wright followed with a motion of his own, requesting “a licensed clinical psychologist” appear as an expert witness.

Wright said his witness had diagnosed him with “Autism Spectrum Disorder with high intellectual skills” which needed to be taken into account when assessing his somewhat inconsistent statements to the court.

Under Judge Bloom’s ruling, Wright’s autism defense is cleared to proceed at this point. He says the psychologist could provide testimony showing how his condition “could be incorrectly perceived as having provided untruthful testimony” such as providing an incomplete or “false” list of Bitcoin addresses.

Billionaire backs Wright to the hilt
Bitcoin SV’s billionaire benefactor Calvin Ayre tweeted his support for Wright following the judge’s decision, claiming Kleiman’s lawyers had attempted to “short circuit” the trial but the ruling would allow “Craig [to] get his day in court”.

Ayre has a history of making colorful statements when it comes to Wright. During earlier court proceedings in August, he tweeted that a different judge presiding over the case had decided Wright was Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. The judge made no such ruling

Background of Kleiman v. Wright
The legal case involves Wright and the estate of his alleged former partner, Dave Kleiman, being represented by his brother, Ira and financially supported by a litigation funder.

After the former’s death, the legal team claims a portion of the 1.1 million Bitcoin (BTC) — worth more than $10 billion at the time of writing — allegedly mined in partnership with Kleiman, as well as access to “blockchain related intellectual property.”

Wright has repeatedly denied he and Kleiman worked together to mine BTC and develop such intellectual property, or that he stole anything belonging to his alleged former partner.

The court case which was originally filed in February 2018 will go to jury trial on July 6.