BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) - A Colorado man accused of using an ax to kill his 4-year-old nephew has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to first-degree murder.
Emanuel Joseph Doll, 28, from Broomfield entered his plea last week after a preliminary hearing in the case before Broomfield County District Judge Don Quick, the Daily Camera reported Thursday.
Doll was arrested in April 2017 and charged with murder after deliberation and murder of a child by a person in a position of trust after Broomfield police responded to calls at a home where the boy was found in the basement.
Emanuel Doll’s parents, Charlotte and Joseph Doll, were babysitting their grandson, Jace Emmanuel Higginbotham, for half an hour that morning before they found him injured, with an iPad and a bloodied ax laying near his body. He was the son of Doll’s twin sister.
Emmanuel Doll was ordered to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo for evaluation in 2018 and was ruled competent to stand trial. A case review is set for July 30. The newspaper did not report whether his attorney commented on the case.
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