Agreeing with prosecutors, a Butler judge has rejected the findings of a defense expert who found a Chicora man suffered from “unspecified” mental disorders when he allegedly attempted to kill a bar patron last year.

Common Pleas Judge Timothy McCune decided earlier this week to side with prosecutors that 57-year-old Gary Ellenberger's defense expert, Pittsburgh-based psychiatrist Bruce Wright, shouldn't be used in Ellenberger's future trial. But McCune also left the door open for Ellenberger and his public defender Charles Nedz to continue to pursue an insanity defense.

Ellenberger is accused of shooting 27-year-old Heath Schrecengost of Karns City in the torso on Sept. 2, 2018, during an incident at Chicora's Millerstown Inn.

But McCune also left the door open for Ellenberger and his public defender, Charles Nedz, by denying prosecutors' request to strike from the case the defense's notice of insanity and/or mental infirmity defense. A defendant who intends to offer at trial the defense of insanity or mental infirmity must file this notice, according to Pennsylvania law.

Nedz said he would consult with his client before deciding what to do next.

Wright found that Ellenberger “suffered from an unspecified affective disorder, an unspecified psychotic disorder and an unspecified anxiety disorder at the time of the incident,” according to Nedz.

“It's completely vague,” Assistant District Attorney Ben Simon, prosecuting the case, said in response. “Dr. Wright never spoke in absolutes.”

In a previous filing, Simon requested that the court allow them to hire their own psychiatric expert, but McCune also rejected that request in his decision this week. He wrote that if Simon wishes to still pursue this request, he would entertain a motion to reconsider.

McCune didn't explain his decisions, but during a Sept. 30 hearing on the insanity matter, McCune said, “I'm not inclined to permit this insanity defense,”

He also said, “The insanity defense has got to be pretty clear that there's a defect, and unspecified this and unspecified that is a long way off from reaching that point. I'm leaning toward the notice is insufficient.”

Nedz also argued in his insanity notice that Ellenberger suffered from involuntary intoxication right before the shooting as a result of an “unanticipated adverse reaction to a recent change in his medication.”

But McCune rejected that and said, “based on the crimes he's charged with, involuntary intoxication is not applicable.”