The incident began on January 19, 2010, when police were called to a road outside Appomattox due to a neighbour reporting of a man requiring medical attention.
Prior to his surrender, police put a school and local businesses on lockdown, and advised residents to lock their houses and not go outside.
The case remained on hold for years as attorneys dealt with pretrial motions and awaited additional mental evaluations.
According to investigators Speight told them that he had been ordered by an Egyptian goddess named Jennifer to shoot his family, because they were possessed by demons.
[9][10][11] The Commonwealth's Attorney Darrel Puckett said mental health experts for both the defense and the state had found Speight insane at the time, "rendering a death sentence highly unlikely" had the case gone to trial.