ORLANDO, Fla. - Court documents filed on Monday by attorneys for the man accused of killing an Orlando police officer in 2017 will argue he was insane at the time of the fatal shooting.
Prosecutors say Markeith Loyd gunned down Orlando police Sgt. Debra Clayton outside an Orlando-area Walmart as she attempted to arrest him for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, weeks earlier. Clayton received a posthumous promotion to lieutenant.
A jury found Loyd guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Dixon and her unborn child, and the same jury also recommended he be sentenced to life. Loyd, 44, is charged with first-degree murder in Clayton’s killing and could again face the death penalty.
Terence Lenamon, the attorney representing Loyd, writes that his client, "suffered from a mental infirmity, disease or defect and because of this condition did not know what he was doing or its consequences or although he knew what he was doing and its consequences he did not know it was wrong.”
Loyd's trial for the murder of Lt. Clayton is expected to begin in May.