Wednesday was the first time the public saw Travis Reinking since he was taken into custody after allegedly opening fire inside an Antioch Waffle House in April.
In the hearing Judge Mark Fishburn ruled Reinking is not competent to stand trial.
"People can understand broken arms and broken legs, they have a hard time understanding broken brains," local defense attorney, David Raybin said.
He has paid close attention to this case. "Competency to stand trial is a moving target. It determines whether the person presently possesses the capacity to defend himself in the court of law," said Raybin. "The judge made a decision to send him to a mental facility here in Nashville which is specifically designed to address competency issues and restore people to competency with medication and therapy and the like."
It's believed Reinking could be there as long as six months or more. "In the vast majority of instances people are restored to competency and they do come back to trial," explained Raybin.
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If he is found competent to stand trial Raybin believes Reinking's attorneys could attempt to get him acquitted by reason of insanity. "Its very rare to have a successful insanity defense in Tennessee," said Raybin. "What the lawyers will probably argue is that while he's ok now with medication and therapy, he wasn't that way at the time of the crime, therefore he was insane at that moment."
It will be some time before Reinking is back in the courtroom. The victim's loved ones, however, are ready for the wait and trusting the process. Whatever they see fit to get him medicated to get him the help he needs to where he can stand trial I'm here for it," said Di'Angelo Groves, DeEbony Groves' brother.
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