NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A man who shot and killed four people at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018 posted videos to YouTube in the years before the killing where he spoke about unknown people who he believed were breaking into his home.
Attorneys for Travis Reinking played a video in court on Thursday that the 33-year-old made in 2017. In it he claims to know that someone was in his apartment because the toilet seat was left up, a door was cracked, and fingerprints were on his laptop.
“Why is somebody coming in my apartment and doing this stuff? Why is someone going into my bathroom?” he asks during the rambling monologue. Later he says, “They’re afraid and they expect me not to be? These people are insane. I don’t know why I have to be mean to people and call people names” to be left alone.
Reinking’s charges include four counts of first degree murder for killing Taurean Sanderlin, 29; Joey Perez, 20; Akilah Dasilva, 23; and DeEbony Groves, 21, in the early morning of April 22, 2018. Prosecutors are seeking a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole.
Reinking has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. To prove that, the defense has to convince the jury that Reinking’s mental illness made him unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions.