ROCKFORD, Ill. — A judge on Monday ordered a psychiatric evaluation for a northern Illinois man accused of killing four people and injuring seven others by stabbing, beating and running over them.
Winnebago County Judge Debra Schafer ordered the evaluation of Christian Soto when the 22-year-old man appeared in court via video link for a scheduled arraignment on a charge of first-degree murder.
Soto’s arraignment is now scheduled for May 17.
Assistant State’s Attorney Ken LaRue said the case will go before a grand jury on Friday.
Phone and email messages seeking comment were left Monday for Soto’s attorney, Glenn Jazwiec.
Authorities have said Soto was behind a series of frenzied attacks on March 27 at multiple addresses in a Rockford neighborhood, but they have not determined a motive.
The Winnebago County coroner identified the dead as 63-year-old Romona Schupbach; 23-year-old Jacob Schupbach; 49-year-old Jay Larson; and 15-year-old Jenna Newcomb.
Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley has said that Soto told police after his arrest that he had smoked marijuana with Jacob Schupbach and believed the drugs were “laced with an unknown narcotic” that made him paranoid.
Soto first fatally stabbed Schupbach and his mother, then punched, stabbed and used a truck to run over Larson, who worked as a postal worker, authorities said. He then injured three people in one home and beat Newcomb, her sister and a friend with a baseball bat in another home, authorities said. The attacks took place within minutes.
Winnebago County sheriff’s deputies arrested Soto as he fled from another home where he had stabbed a woman but was slowed by a driver who stopped to intervene, authorities said.