SANTA FE, TEXAS — Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the former student charged with capital murder in the May 18, 2018, shooting at Santa Fe High School, has been held at North Texas State Hospital for 2,359 days without having his competency to stand trial restored. Pagourtzis, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was declared incompetent in November 2019 and has never gone to trial, with the criminal cases against him remaining in limbo.

On the day of the shooting, a student walked onto the Santa Fe campus and opened fire on classmates and staff. Students Jared Black, Shana Fisher, Christian Garcia, Kyle McLeod, Angelique Ramirez, Sabika Sheikh, Chris Stone and Kimberly Vaughan were killed, along with educators Cynthia Tisdale and Glenda Ann Perkins. Thirteen people were injured. Pagourtzis was arrested and charged with capital murder and aggravated assault on a public servant, and in April 2019 was also charged with federal crimes related to the mass shooting.

Doctors have been unable to restore his competency. According to Texas Health and Human Services Commission data, doctors at the Vernon campus restored a person's competency in an average of 134 days, and the average daily cost of treatment is $949. Pagourtzis is one of four patients at the Vernon campus who have been there longer than five years.

Defense attorney Nick Poehl said Pagourtzis does not have a rational or factual understanding of the proceedings against him and cannot aid in his own defense. "We visited in January and met with his treatment team. They described him as the sickest individual in the hospital. What people need to understand is that it's a unanimous scientific opinion," Poehl said. Asked how many doctors have reviewed his competency, he said, "The number is approaching 20 at this point, thereabouts."

Poehl described Pagourtzis' daily routine at the hospital. "He's not sitting under a shade tree reading a book. His day consists of individual therapy, group therapy, this library assignment, meals, and more therapy," he said. "It's part of his therapy. It's highly supervised. It's for a few hours a day." Poehl said Pagourtzis works in the library, checking out, returning and re-shelving books.

The Galveston County District Attorney's Office and the judge presiding over the case review doctors' progress annually before signing recommitment orders. Families of victims are asking the office to hand the case over to the United States Attorney's Office. In January, Galveston County District Attorney Ken Cusick said he was considering finding an independent doctor to evaluate Pagourtzis' competency. Asked about transferring the case to federal authorities, Cusick said, "No comment at this time."

"Hopefully one day he will be competent and he will stand trial," Gail McLeod said. Families of victims sued Pagourtzis' parents, arguing they were partially responsible because the guns used in the shooting came from their home. In August 2024, a jury found his parents were not liable for the mass shooting.

In October 2024, the Santa Fe Independent School District school board asked the United States Department of Justice to conduct a technical review of campus safety and security policies. The review was completed in March 2026 and was limited to the district's current state of safety and security and did not analyze any aspect of the 2018 shooting.