NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Court TV/Scripps News Nashville) — A judge is considering whether to grant a new trial to Travis Reinking, the man convicted of killing four people in a 2018 mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House.
Travis Reinking sits in court while the jury wasn’t present during the third day of his murder trial at the Justice A.A. Birch Building in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. (Stephanie Amador/The Tennessean via AP, Pool)
Reinking’s defense team spent the past week arguing that his previous legal representation failed to adequately present evidence about the severity of his mental illness during his original trial.
Regardless of Judge Mark Fishburn’s decision on the request for a new trial, Reinking will never be released from custody due to the undisputed evidence of his guilt in the murders.
Court TV Archives | TN v. Travis Reinking: Waffle House Shooting Trial (2022)
In April 2018, Reinking arrived at the Antioch Waffle House armed with an AR-15 and opened fire, killing Taurean Sanderlin, Joe Perez, Deebony Groves, and Akilah Dasilva in a matter of minutes.
After a nearly two-day manhunt, authorities captured Reinking. Following his arrest, a judge initially ruled him incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo treatment.
“There’s a thing called restoration of competency. It means trying to restore you to a level where you can be tried,” Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said.
Once deemed competent, Reinking contacted Scripps News Nashville’s Nick Beres from jail.
“Yeah, no… I’m perfectly healthy,” he stated when asked about his mental fitness during a brief conversation.
Four years after the shooting, Reinking finally faced trial, where his defense team’s insanity argument failed to convince the jury. He was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In his current appeal, Reinking isn’t contesting his guilt but rather seeking potential placement in a mental institution instead of prison if granted a new trial and convicted again.
Judge Fishburn has taken the case under advisement and will issue his decision on the request for a new trial in the coming weeks.
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