Austin, Texas: Jury Finds Shane James Competent, and Jury Selection Begins in the Capital Murder Trial

Jury selection began on Tuesday in the capital murder trial of Shane James, one day after a Travis County jury answered the question that has delayed the case for nearly three years. On Monday, jurors found James competent to stand trial, rejecting a renewed challenge from his own attorneys that had stopped the trial on the morning it was supposed to start. James is accused of killing six people, his parents in Bexar County and four people in Austin, and of injuring three others in a series of shootings on December 5, 2023. He has pleaded not guilty, and in September his attorneys told the court they intend to argue that he is not guilty by reason of insanity.

A competency trial took the trial's place

Jury selection for the capital murder trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, October 26. The week before, James's attorneys raised fresh concerns about his fitness, and Judge Cliff Brown granted their motion to test his competency first. Monday's proceeding was therefore a competency trial, not the murder trial itself.

Competency is a narrow question. As Austin defense attorney Brian Erskine, who is not involved in the case, explained to KXAN, it asks whether a defendant can understand the court process and communicate with his lawyers well enough to help with his own defense. The defense carries the burden, and the standard is more likely than not, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury's answer on Monday was that James is competent. A new jury selection for the capital murder trial began the next day, with KSAT and FOX 7 Austin both reporting the court back at work on Tuesday.

What police say happened on December 5, 2023

Investigators say the day began in Bexar County, where James killed his parents, Phyllis James and Shane James Sr., at their home in San Antonio. Police believe they died between the night of December 4 and the morning of December 5.

In Austin that morning, police say, James shot and injured an Austin Independent School District police officer at Northeast Early College High School. About an hour later, on Shadywood Drive, he shot Emmanuel Pop Ba, a 30-year-old handyman working from his truck, and Sabrina Rahman, 24, who was walking with her baby. Both died, and police say he took Pop Ba's truck. In the evening, he shot a cyclist on West Slaughter Lane, who survived. Officers answering a burglary call on Austral Loop then found him in a backyard. Police say he fired at an officer and wounded him. Inside the Austral Loop home, officers found Katherine Short, 56, and her daughter Lauren Short, 30, dead. James was arrested after a police chase and charged with capital murder on December 6, 2023.

Three years of competency fights

The ruling on Monday was not the first competency decision in this case. In 2024, James was found incompetent to stand trial and sent to a state mental hospital for treatment. In 2025, his competency was restored and he returned to the Travis County jail. He pleaded not guilty in May 2026, and in July he was found competent again. His attorneys have said, in the notice filed in September and in reporting on the case, that they plan to argue he is not guilty by reason of insanity because of a schizophrenia diagnosis. That defense concerns his state of mind in December 2023, and it is separate from the competency question the jury settled this week. The jury now being seated will decide whether the state can prove he carried out the shootings.