Prosecutors are seeking to bar a survivalist from using a possible insanity defense at his trial in the ambush shooting death of a Pennsylvania state police trooper outside a rural barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Thirty-two-year-old Eric Frein is charged in Pike County in the September 2014 gunfire that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass. He was arrested after a 48-day manhunt.
District Attorney Ray Tonkin filed a motion Friday saying defense attorneys must notify prosecutors at the time of pretrial motions if they plan to use a defense of insanity or mental infirmity.
Defense attorney William Ruzzo told The (Scranton) Times-Tribune on Monday that the defense is still consulting with a psychiatric expert.
The defense wants the trial moved or an outside jury brought in.
