Defense experts used words like psychotic, paranoid, illogical and delusional to describe Robert Bowers.

Prosecutors used other words: methodical, calculated, premeditated, intentional.

Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, was found guilty last month of killing 11 people as they worshipped at a Squirrel Hill synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. Before Bowers can be sentenced, the jury that convicted him first must decide whether he is eligible to be considered for capital punishment.

That was the focus last week as the trial moved into what is called the eligibility phase.

For the government to prove Bowers can be put to death, it first must convince the jury that the defendant had the intent to kill the victims, and that at least one of four aggravating factors has been met. Those are that the defendant created a grave risk of death to 12 additional people; that the crime involved substantial planning and premeditation; that those killed were considered “vulnerable victims” because of their age and intellectual disabilities; and that there were multiple killings.

The victims, who were members of the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations, were Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Irving Younger, 69; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; and Richard Gottfried, 65.

The government spent the entire day Monday calling witnesses to support the proposed aggravating factors before resting their own case.

The defense, which conceded the aggravating factor of multiple killings, spent the rest of the week challenging the prosecution’s contention that their client was able to form the requisite intent to kill necessary to seek capital punishment.

They argued that Bowers has schizophrenia and other brain dysfunction that made it impossible for him to form intent. They spent most of last week calling experts to bolster their claims and will continue to do so when the case resumes Monday with at least one additional witness. The government is expected to present rebuttal relative to last week’s mental health testimony with experts of its own.

Once that has been completed, the jurors will meet to deliberate again — deciding whether the case should move to the final phase: sentence selection, where they will be asked to listen to victim-impact testimony, as well as mitigating evidence from the defense. If so, the jury must then weigh the aggravating factors against the mitigating factors to determine whether Bowers should be sentenced to prison or death.

A death verdict must be unanimous.

This week will be a short one. Court will not be in session Tuesday for the July 4th holiday or Friday, a scheduled day off.

Below is a summary of the witnesses called during the past week, their role in the case, how long they were on the stand and evidence they presented.

Day 14

(First day in the eligibility phase of the trial)

1. Diane Rosenthal (18 minutes)

The sister of victims Cecil and David Rosenthal, Diane Rosenthal was called to explain to the jury about her brothers’ intellectual disability. She said they had the mental capacity of preschoolers, were unable to read and had trouble tying their shoes. Both men relied on others for assistance and lived in an Achieva group home in Squirrel Hill. She said her brothers loved worshipping at Tree of Life and considered it to be their “safe place.”

2. Michelle Weis (10 minutes)

She told the jury that her parents, Sylvan and Bernice Simon, both suffered from a number of medical ailments before they were killed at the synagogue. Weis said her mother had both knees and her left hip replaced and used a cane to walk, while her father had macular degeneration, required hip replacement surgery and had chronic neck and back pain.

3. Howard Fienberg (12 minutes)

He told the jury that his mother, Joyce, spent five years caring for his father, who had cancer before he died, and also took care of her own mother and mother-in-law. Everyone else’s medical needs took priority over hers, he said.

4. Jeffrey Garris (34 minutes)

A Pittsburgh police SWAT officer described Bowers’ attack on law enforcement officers who responded to the synagogue. He told the jury how dark it was inside the classroom where the gunman hid, and how Bowers set up in a corner to ambush responding officers.

5. Jodi Kart (9 minutes)

She told the jury about her dad, Melvin Wax, and how he had difficulty hearing. He wore basic hearing aids, she said, but they weren’t as good as they could have been. Wax was completely deaf in one hear and had lost 50% of his hearing in the other.

6. Joseph Stein (7 minutes)

He told the jury that his dad, Dan Stein, used a CPAP machine to combat snoring and that he’d lost some mobility as he’d gotten older. He expected him to need hearing aids in the near future.

7. Brian Collins (22 minutes)

Collins, an FBI agent in Pittsburgh and a member of the evidence response team, testified about all of the many areas of ballistic damage found throughout the synagogue where the victims were shot.

8. Stanley Mallinger (9 minutes)

He lived with his mother, Rose, for at least the last 10 years of her life. She suffered from glaucoma, wore hearing aids and had to use a walker inside their home. She could no longer go out by herself and, at age 97, was the oldest of the victims.

Day 15

9. Dr.Vijayalakashmi Rajasekaran (38 minutes)

The neurologist and epilepsy specialist with UPMC testified that she reviewed an ambulatory EEG, which measures electrical activity in the brain, conducted on Bowers over a 48-hour period on Dec. 14, 2021. She said the results showed “potential seizure tendency,” but that he did not have any seizures during the test. She also said the test cannot be used to determine if a patient had a previous seizure or predict them in the future.

10. Dr. Joseph Mettenburg (35 minutes)

The UPMC neuroradiologist testified that he did the initial review of Bowers’ brain MRI. He said Bowers had extensive “white-matter hyperintensities,” which can be caused by a number of things, including migraines. He called the MRI “a normal brain MRI,” and not diagnostically helpful.

11. Dr. James Michael Mountz (32 minutes)

The UPMC radiologist testified that he reviewed Bowers’ brain PET scan. He said he was asked to look for symptoms of epilepsy in the scan but didn’t find any.

12. Dr. Andrew Newberg (1 hour, 56 minutes)

The nuclear medicine physician at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia is an expert in reviewing PET scans, which measure blood flow and glucose processing. He testified that Bowers’ brain PET scan showed significant abnormal activity, including an overactive frontal lobe and asymmetry in the brain. An overactive front lobe can lead to a persistently excited state, he said. Associated problems can include trouble concentrating, processing information, organizing and planning and emotional regulation. Newberg also found abnormalities in Bowers’ left medial temporal lobe, which can be associated with impaired memory and delusions, and in his hypothalamus, which regulates the autonomic nervous system.

13. Dr. Murray Solomon (57 minutes)

The California neuroradiologist was called as an expert in MRIs. Solomon testified that Bowers’ scan showed an unusually large number of white-matter lesions indicative of schizophrenia. He noted that they also can be caused my uncontrolled high blood pressure, heavy smoking and migraines. On cross-examination, Solomon testified that he did not know schizophrenia could cause white-matter lesions until a few weeks ago. He said he Googled it and found a number of articles confirming it.

Day 16

14. Dr. Siddhartha Nadkarni (5 hours, 50 minutes)

Board-certified in six specialties, Nadkarni evaluated Bowers over four hours in September 2021 and conducted a neurological evaluation of him. He diagnosed Bowers with schizophrenia and epilepsy.

Nadkarni described Bowers as being paranoid, “quick to agitation” and unable to assess stimuli and read the world appropriately. Bowers misinterprets information and finds things threatening that aren’t, he said.

“He is unable to make decisions using proper judgment based on delusional beliefs,” Nadkarni said.

The doctor recounted information he found in Bowers’ medical records. In 1985, when Bowers was 13, he was admitted to McKeesport Hospital for “violent behavior at home” after he threw an inflammable liquid at his mother and tried to light it and then “threatened to kill himself.” It was the start of a nine-month period of in-patient hospitalization for Bowers at three different facilities.

Nadkarni also told the jury that Bowers spent three days hospitalized at St. Clair Hospital in Mt. Lebanon in 2004 after he put a loaded shotgun in his mouth when he was worried about potentially becoming homeless.

He described Bowers as having a flat affect and slow processing. He described dysfunction in the defendant’s frontal lobe, which controls executive function such as decision-making, planning, judgment and comportment. There also was dysfunction in the temporal lobe, which controls emotional regulation, hearing, memory and language processing.

Nadkarni said that Bowers had a “profound delusion” after his arrest in the case in which he believed that ink from his Butler County Prison uniform was leaching into his body and then coming out in his identification wristband, making it redder. It then flowed back into his pen.

Day 17

15. Dr. Richard Rogers (5 hours, 32 minutes)

The expert in forensic psychology told the jury that the defendant was “blatantly psychotic” at the time of his crime. He spent more than 18 hours evaluating Bowers at Butler County Prison, where he is being held, over four days last fall. He said the results showed that Bowers is schizophrenic and was delusional at the time of the crime.

Bowers became obsessed with his thoughts. “This became his life,” Rogers said. “The thinking, the planning, the preparation. The act became his life.”

Rogers said Bowers believed that he would be venerated for his actions on “Attack Day,” and that he deserved a parade or medals. He claimed to be proud of what he did, but was disappointed there weren’t more victims.

16. Mike Williams (29 minutes)

Williams, a corrections officer at Butler County Prison, was called as a government witness out of order because of a scheduling conflict. He told the jury that he has worked on the Restrictive Housing Unit where Bowers has been held since his arrival there more than 4½ years ago. He described the defendant as very neat and orderly and said he understands direction and follows the rules. Williams also said Bowers has good hygiene, sleeps regularly and is able to stay on topic during conversations. The defendant watches a lot of news programs on television, does not take any medications and has no mental health diagnoses. Williams also said he’s never known Bowers to be delusional. With regard to the jail uniforms, he said that they are known for having the dye leach into other clothes, onto walls and into the identification bracelets inmates wear.

Day 18

15. Dr. Richard Rogers (continued from a day earlier, 3 hours, 38 minutes)

In testimony continued from Thursday, Rogers told the jury that he believes Bowers didn’t know he was mentally ill and that the defendant has no insight into his thinking.

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