A man involved in an hours-long standoff with law enforcement at a Colorado Springs home in August pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to most of his charges Tuesday.

Antonio Mellon, 23, is accused of impersonating an immigration agent at an on-demand “ghost” delivery convenience store and then pointing a gun at law enforcement after barricading himself inside his home days later.

The defendant will undergo a second round of mental health evaluations at Valor at Embrave’s Colorado Springs location before his case continues. Expert testimony will likely be used during the trial to determine his mental status at the time of two criminal incidents that authorities say he committed.

Defense attorney Sarah Martin said in court that Mellon’s demeanor is “stark” compared to the first time the two met around six months ago. Mellon, who Martin says is schizophrenic, stopped taking his meds when he first moved to Colorado Springs.

He was later linked to a string of bizarre events in August, including the incident in which he is accused of barricading himself inside his home for several hours while law enforcement waited outside.

But things have been different since he’s been medicated, Martin said. She said evidence obtained in the investigation makes it “abundantly clear” that Mellon was having a mental health episode at the time of the events.

The defendant spent time at a hospital in Washington after he was arrested and accused of child sex assault, according to Martin. That case was dismissed because he was found to be incompetent.

More evidence about Mellon’s current case was revealed during Tuesday’s hearing, including testimony from a Colorado Springs Police Department officer and detective.

Officer Marcus Tubbs testified seeing Mellon point a gun through a window at him and other officers as they waited for the defendant to come out.

“I just saw it coming through the window towards my chest,” Tubbs said of a laser that was later found to be attached to the handgun found inside the home.

The barricade incident lasted over four hours before Mellon began negotiating with the police. Eventually, he came outside with two twin children who are family members.

While locked inside his home, Mellon documented the encounter over Instagram.

Colorado Springs police Detective T. Thorpe testified that Mellon’s videos contained “nonsensical” rants about law enforcement and a “corrupt” government, showing off a handgun with a laser attached to it as he did.

“Some of it was nonsensical. In others, he was threatening to quote on quote ‘Go out with a bang,'” Thorpe said.

The Gazette found some of the videos on his Instagram. At least two talk about how the government is “taking away the rights of American people.” In one of them, Mellon asks for help from his “people,” saying he is “the truth” as he shows police cars outside his home.

In another video, he is seen coughing for over a minute before claiming that police shot him with “pepper bombs” or “whatever” when he went outside to confront them. His eyes were visibly red and teary-eyed in the video.

“I was born as a Crip. Imma’ go out as a Crip,” Mellon says as he points a gun with a laser attached to it at the camera.

As the video plays, a little girl is heard coughing intermittently in the background.

According to his arrest papers, the authorities struck Mellon with pepper balls. Two 2-year-old twins in close proximity were exposed to the effects.

Colorado Springs Police Department spokesperson Caitlin Ford said the department does not know whether Mellon is in a gang.

Mellon could face a lengthy prison sentence if found guilty

Prosecutors argued Tuesday that Mellon allegedly pointing a gun at law enforcement raised it from a threat to first-degree assault of a peace officer.

Martin argued that the only reason the defendant is facing assault charges is that the people involved are law enforcement.

“Were we to have the same scenario with people who aren’t officers, this would only be menacing charges,” Martin said before recalling a previous case in which a gun was actually fired, but the defendant was charged with menacing.

According to the Colorado Legal Defense Group, menacing is knowingly using threats or actions to place another person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury or death. While typically a misdemeanor, it is upgraded to a felony when a real or simulated weapon is involved.

First-degree assault, the defense group says, is defined by “intentionally and seriously hurting another person by means of physical force, often with a deadly weapon.”

Punishments for both charges range drastically. For felony menacing, a convicted person can face one to three years in prison. That gets upgraded to 10 to 32 years in prison for first-degree assault.

El Paso County Judge Marcus Henson said whether the charges should be changed is a “question for a different day.” He ruled that the prosecution presented enough evidence at the hearing to continue with six of Mellon’s charges: four first-degree assault charges, possessing a weapon as a previous offender and impersonating a peace officer.

He also bound over violent crime sentence enhancers.

More of what happened in court and what didn’t

Evidence of Mellon’s alleged impersonation of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was briefly examined at Tuesday’s hearing.

Tubbs testified seeing a photo of an ICE badge that Mellon allegedly used at a DashMart, a subsidiary of DoorDash, prior to the barricade incident. A picture of the badge is shown in Mellon’s arrest papers, but the photo isn’t clear enough to make out who is pictured.

Mellon allegedly used the badge at the DashMart after an employee told him it was against company policy to allow guns inside, according to Tubbs’ testimony.

The incident, Tubbs said, is what prompted law enforcement to show up at Mellon’s home on Aug. 27, though the badge was never found.

Mellon pleaded not guilty to the impersonation charge.

What wasn’t gone over at the hearing was Mellon’s alleged use of children as human shields.

“Antonio exited the residence with both (children) in his arms, utilizing them as shields,” Thorpe wrote in one of Mellon’s arrest papers.

She goes on to write that she believes Mellon poses a “significant threat” to the public, especially those children. However, she testified in court that law enforcement wasn’t concerned for the children’s safety during the barricade incident after hearing from family members, who left the home of their own free will.

At least three of Mellon’s family members, including his mother and brother, were present virtually at the court hearing to show support for him.

The next steps

Given the evidence presented in court, Henson lowered Mellon’s bond from $500,000 to $75,000. He will be allowed to receive outpatient mental health exams and can stay out of jail so long as he abides by the requirements given to him by the court and mental health experts.

One of these requirements is wearing an ankle monitor.

Henson emphasized the importance of following those requirements.

“If you don’t, the jail waits. And I don’t want to have to put you back in there if I don’t have to,” Henson told Mellon.

As of Wednesday afternoon, records indicate that Mellon is still being held at the El Paso County jail on his original bond.

Mellon is scheduled to reappear in court April 28 for a review hearing.