TUCSON, April 29 (UPI) -- Jared Lee Loughner, charged with shooting 19 people, six fatally, in an attack aimed at U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, has been returned to custody in Arizona.
David Gonzales, the U.S. marshal in Tucson, said Loughner spent five weeks undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., The Washington Post reported. Gonzales said Loughner was transported back to Tucson Thursday.
Loughner was subdued and arrested after allegedly opening fire at a Jan. 8 constituent event Giffords was holding outside a supermarket. The Democratic Arizona congresswoman suffered a severe gunshot wound to her head.
The psychiatric evaluation was partly to determine if Loughner is competent to be tried. His lawyers have not said if they plan to present a psychiatric defense, which could be used either to try for a not guilty verdict or as a mitigating factor against the death penalty.
A judge granted a prosecution request Wednesday that a psychiatrist in Missouri evaluating Loughner be given his earlier medical records.
Giffords, who has been in a Houston rehab hospital, traveled to Florida this week for the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, commanded by her husband, Mark Kelly. The launch was postponed Friday because of a technical problem.
