PUEBLO, Colo. -- A Pueblo man who was ruled insane in the 1996 killings of two priests could make unsupervised visits to Denver, officials at the state mental hospital said.

Douglas Comiskey, 29, has been regularly spending eight hours away from the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo and continues to show progress, his doctors said this week.

He was committed in 1997 after reaching a plea agreement in the stabbing deaths of Revs. Thomas Scheets, 65 and Louis Stovik, 77, at the Pueblo church where he was a member.

If Comiskey is given overnight visits to Denver, a local mental health center would take over his treatment and the state facility would monitor his process.

Doctors told the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper that Comiskey's schizophrenia is in full remission and that he is on medication to make sure his mental illness is controlled.

His overnight stays in Denver could begin in two to three months, according to doctors.