Psychiatric exam ordered for suspected I-80 sniper

Scott Sonner

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 3 a.m.

RENO, Nev. -- A judge ordered a psychiatric examination Friday for a man accused of opening fire on Interstate 80 in what he says was the start of a planned cross-country killing spree.

Washoe District Judge Steven Kosach ordered three doctors to examine Christopher Merritt, 20, at the request of Merritt's public defender.

"I want you to cooperate with them. It is in your best interest to cooperate with them," Kosach told Merritt in court.

Merritt - who has told news reporters a bizarre story about his plans to murder more than 10 people for his "own amusement" - said to the judge that he would cooperate.

Merritt, a part-time hog farmer and film buff from Missouri who studied astronomy and philosophy at a college in Minnesota, has been charged with six counts of attempted murder.

He has confessed to the interstate shootings but has yet to enter a formal plea, which was postponed until after the psychological evaluation is returned to the judge on March 10.

Merritt has been held without bail in the Washoe County Jail since he was arrested about 12 hours after the shootings on Jan. 4.

He said in a series of interviews in the days following that he was the man who fired two dozen shots at cars and trucks on Interstate 80 on the western outskirts of Reno.

One man was shot in the chest and several other vehicles were hit by the gunfire, which shut down a 10-mile stretch of the busy highway for four hours.

Merritt appeared in court in handcuffs and leg shackles, smiling and nodding at a reporter.

He has been getting along well in jail and "doesn't appear to be suicidal," said Maizie Pusich, the county's chief deputy public defender.

"He just reads," Pusich said. "Everything."

Merritt earlier told reporters he likes to write poetry, describing his work as a cross between Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino and gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

He confessed to the shooting after he was stopped for having a light out on his license plate and police discovered guns and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in his truck.

He initially told police he intended to shoot the drivers to cause them to crash, then run to the vehicles and rob them.

But he subsequently said in interviews he'd planned a murder spree in part to mock America's growing appetite for violence in media.

"The popular American has chosen to feed off of whatever violent stories," Merritt told The Associated Press in a jailhouse interview earlier this month.

"Either they read the story and vicariously live through it or they read the story and they somehow find interest in disliking and hating someone like myself."

Asked in the interview Jan. 6 if he believed he was sane, Merritt replied, "What is sane?"

"I know where I am. ... I'm able to function in society for the most part, although I do have some social withholdings. I'm not terrifically good in social environments," he said.

Merritt said the American public seems to set dual standards about what is acceptable, condemning real-life killers while glamorizing murders in films, he said.

"There's not a whole lot of difference between contemplating an act and actually going through with it. If you've already thought about it, that's almost close enough to taking the action."