CORVALLIS, Ore. — The teenager accused of plotting to bomb West Albany High School plans an insanity defense, according to court paperwork.
The 17-year-old, Grant Acord, can distinguish right from wrong, but was unable to follow the law, said his attorney, Jennifer Nash.
“Our position is my client was suffering from a mental disease or defect that made him unable to conform his behavior to the requirements of law,” she told Corvallis Gazette-Times.
Albany police arrested Acord on May 23, after receiving a tip that he planned to attack the school. He was later charged as an adult with attempted aggravated murder, as well as several explosives and weapons counts.
Investigators found six homemade bombs under the floorboards in his bedroom, according to court documents, as well as detailed lists, timelines and plans to carry out an attack modeled on the 1999 killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
In that attack, two teens fatally gunned down 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 others before killing themselves.
In a statement released shortly after Acord’s arrest, his mother, Marianne Fox, said that her son suffers from a rare condition that triggers an obsessive-compulsive disorder. The statement said it’s called pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus.
Nash’s filing gives prosecutors a chance to have their own mental evaluation done and then to decide whether to accept Acord’s plea or to proceed to trial, tentatively set for June.
Acord, who is from Benton County town North Albany, remains in custody at the county jail. The county’s chief deputy district attorney, Christian Stringer, said he couldn’t go into details of the motion or the case.
In a hearing Tuesday, Judge Locke Williams gave Nash a Jan. 31 deadline to file a motion to suppress Acord’s statements to investigators.
