rigorousintuition.ca

The 'experts' say that these murders are the result of 'mental illness'; I say that there is much more to these cases than meets the eye...

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The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey)
August 14, 2008 Thursday - FINAL EDITION
Murder trial opens with battle over motiveDefendant says he was on a mission from God when he stabbed 2
BYLINE: MARYANN SPOTO, STAR-LEDGER STAFF
SECTION: NEW JERSEY; Pg. 38
LENGTH: 564 words


Rosario "Russell" Miraglia Jr. admits he killed and dismembered his 88-year-old grandmother and his ex-girlfriend four years ago.

But attorneys in his murder trial that got under way yesterday are dueling over whether the 36-year-old Ocean Township man thought he was on a mission from God when he hacked up the women or whether he fabricated the religious motive to escape prosecution.

"This is not simply an insanity trial," Executive Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Richard Incremona said in opening statements yesterday in Freehold. "This is a murder trial of two women who were killed in an unprovoked attack. It's a trial about how they were killed and why they were killed.

Miraglia, jailed since the stabbings, initially faced the death penalty before state lawmakers abolished capital punishment late last year.

Insisting Miraglia was delusional from mental illness, Assistant Public Defender Joseph Krakora urged jurors to find him not guilty by reason of insanity.

"When you add up those facts, you will see that this is a crime committed by someone suffering from a severe delusional belief system as a result of severe mental illness," he said.

Incremona acknowledged Miraglia's history of mental illness but argued he knew killing the two women was wrong.

The night before the stabbings, Miraglia left a halfway house in Newark, where he was undergoing treatment for a heroin addiction.

Julia Miraglia was living with Leigh Martinez - her grandson's former girlfriend and the mother of his child - when Russell Miraglia sneaked into the house in Ocean Township through a kitchen window and slaughtered them with a large knife and a meat cleaver on June 8, 2004, Incremona told the jury of eight men and eight women.

While given a number of opportunities to explain his actions, Miraglia evaded investigators' questions for hours after the killings, Incremona argued.

It wasn't until after he was given a Bible while in a holding cell that he told investigators he was on a mission from God, the assistant prosecutor said. Incremona suggested Miraglia, who had a sporadic relationship with Martinez, 31, for years, was jealous of her new boyfriend.

He said Miraglia planned to burn down the house, as evidenced by a can of gasoline and newspapers soaked with the flammable fluid found in the basement.

Krakora urged jurors in his opening arguments to consider Miraglia's history of drug addiction and mental illness, including one incident in 2002 when he claimed he was Jesus Christ.

He said that while Miraglia may not have immediately claimed he was on a mission from God, he was overheard "talking to God, asking God if he did the right thing" as he sat in the back of a police car after the slayings.

Miraglia later told investigators God instructed him to kill the descendents of an ancient Lebanese king and that his grandmother's house "was the gateway to hell and had to be destroyed," he said.

The women's heads, hands and feet were cut off "in some bizarre ritualistic manner," the public defender said.

Two psychiatric evaluations concluded he was not faking a mental illness, Krakora said.

Miraglia, on trial before Superior Court Judge Paul Chaiet, is charged with two counts of murder, three weapons offenses and attempted aggravated arson.

Mary Ann Spoto may be reached at mspoto@starledger.com or (732) 462-8603.

Photo Credit: 1. PHOTOS BY NOAH K. MURRAY/THE STAR-LEDGER

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Chicago Tribune (Illinois)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
October 27, 2007 Saturday
Suicidal driver guilty but ill: She rammed car but it wasn't murder, judge says
BYLINE: Deborah Horan, Susan Kuczka and Andrew L. Wang, Chicago Tribune
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 1204 words


Oct. 27---- A young woman who rammed her car into another in a bid to commit suicide but instead killed three musicians was found guilty but mentally ill Friday in Cook County's Skokie courthouse.

The prosecution had charged Jeanette Sliwinski, 25, with three counts of first-degree murder, but the judge convicted her of the lesser charge of reckless homicide. A conviction of guilty but mentally ill means she will receive treatment while serving her sentence.

Sliwinski could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years. Had she been convicted of first-degree murder, she could have gotten a life sentence.

The former trade-show model from Morton Grove pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She waived her right to a jury trial, leaving the case in the hands of Circuit Judge Garritt Howard.

He said in explaining the verdict that he believed Sliwinski was trying to kill herself.

"She put the accelerator to the floor. She never touched the brakes," Howard said. "I believe the defendant was being truthful when she said she only intended to hurt herself and not anyone else."

But he did not believe she was psychotic. He said he believed she "outright fabricates" some of the details of what happened.

"The defendant is a very poor historian," Howard said.

Sliwinski, who was shaking and whispering to herself before the verdict, looked down and sobbed as the judge spoke.

But her lawyer, Tom Breen, said he "was absolutely delighted the judge felt first-degree murder was not proven and the judge acknowledged she was a deeply disturbed woman."

'A great big hole'

Gail Meis' son, Douglas, was one of the three killed in the wreck.

"Nothing is going to bring them back," she said. "Our family was so close. Now there's a great big hole. There always will be."

Sliwinski's family said little in the moments after the verdict.

"We would have obviously all hoped for a verdict of innocent because of illness," said Toni Randle, the family's spokesman.

Chicagoans Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29, were at a stop light on Dempster Street and Niles Center Road in Skokie in July 2005 when Sliwinski's Mustang barreled into their Honda Civic at 87 m.p.h., prosecutors said.

The men were on their lunch break from work at Shure Inc., a Niles company that makes microphones and other audio electronic products.

During testimony this week, several defense witnesses described Sliwinski as psychotic, while others called by the prosecution suggested that her strange behavior was contrived, or demonstrated mental illness that didn't meet the legal definition of insanity.

During closing arguments Friday, family members wept as the prosecution detailed the horrific nature of the crash.

Rather than use a gun, Sliwinski used her car as a weapon, Assistant State's Atty. Michele Gemskie said.

"With one narcissistic, histrionic act, this woman brought their innocent lives to an end as she tried to take her own," she said.

She noted inconsistencies in what Sliwinski told doctors leading up to the accident.

In testimony last week, psychiatrists who interviewed Sliwinski in jail said she told them she doesn't remember the crash.

But police investigators testified that immediately after the wreck, Sliwinski said she had wanted to commit suicide after a fight with her mother earlier in the day. She said she jumped in her car, drove about a mile east on Dempster at 70 m.p.h. and floored the accelerator when she saw traffic stopped in front of her at Niles Center.

She slammed into the stopped Honda, flipping both cars. Glick was thrown from the Honda and pronounced dead on the scene. Dahlquist and Meis were trapped inside the vehicle and were pronounced dead at local hospitals.

To bolster their insanity defense, Sliwinski's attorneys, Breen and Todd Pugh, portrayed a woman desperately seeking medical help for depression they claim drove her into madness when psychiatrists failed her.

Her mother, Ursula, testified that Sliwinski complained of hearing voices talking to her from the television. Her former attorney, Thomas Needham, testified that four days after the crash Sliwinski recounted imagined television coverage of her case on the "Tonight Show" and "60 Minutes."

But prosecutors sought to weaken that testimony by describing a woman caught up in the grip of alcohol and drug abuse prior to the crash.

Woman's psychosis doubted

Dr. Peter Lourgos said Sliwinski told a psychologist that she knew the psychologist "wouldn't believe this," but the CIA was after her and President Bush "was in on it too." But Lourgos said people suffering from psychosis don't preface descriptions of their delusions with phrases that suggest they know the experience is strange.

Though the burden to prove a crime was committed fell on the prosecution, it was up to the defense to prove that their client was legally insane -- that she did not comprehend the criminality of her actions at the moment of the crash.

"It's a tough burden to meet; it's a very heavy burden," said Tom Geraghty, a law professor at Northwestern University.

Experts say it is not easy to wade through conflicting testimony and determine someone's mental state at a given moment.

Psychiatric evaluation isn't a "hard and fast science," said Dr. Morton Silverman, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago.

While there are standard questions and techniques that psychiatrists use, much of their diagnoses rests on their own observations and interactions with patients, he said. When medications are prescribed, diagnoses become even more complex, as patients can respond unexpectedly to drugs, and multiple drugs can interact in unforeseen ways.

After the verdict was announced, Gemskie said prosecutors were disappointed.

"We believe the evidence did support a finding of first-degree murder," she said. "The families of the victims also ... of course, they are disappointed. But nothing is ever going to bring their sons and brothers and friends back."

Musicians remembered

Dahlquist played drums for Silkworm, a band that had played around the Midwest as well as in England, Italy and Japan. After he died the group stopped playing shows together. Glick played guitar and sang with the Returnables, which also disbanded after the crash. Meis played drums with Glick's wife in The Dials, a group that continued performing.

Friends and family members have tried to keep the memory of the men alive, posting on Internet message boards and Web sites, recording tribute albums and organizing benefit shows.

"For many of us, the passing of a single day without one of these men was difficult to endure," read a statement on the Web site for The Dials. "They will be longed for always."

Sentencing is set for Nov. 26.

dhoran@tribune.com

skuczka@tribune.com

alwang@tribune.com

Tribune staff reporter Lisa Black contributed to this report.

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The San Francisco Chronicle (California)
August 1, 2008 Friday - FINAL Edition
Insanity ruling in hit-and-run that hurt 16; SAN FRANCISCO; Suspect will be institutionalized for 2 years - he still is
charged with murder in Alameda County
BYLINE: Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
SECTION: Metro; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 927 words


The Fremont man accused of a hit-and-run rampage in San Francisco two years ago that injured 16 pedestrians was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Superior Court judge Thursday, a ruling that will keep him out of state prison but could result in his being institutionalized for the rest of his life.

Judge Carol Yaggy ruled after prosecutors and the defense agreed to waive a trial on whether Omeed Aziz Popal was legally insane at the time of the attacks Aug. 29, 2006. Popal, 31, was accused of 16 counts of attempted murder and other felonies.

Yaggy cited the findings of two court-appointed doctors, who said Popal was bipolar and schizophrenic when he ran down the pedestrians, one of whom was left paralyzed.

Popal will be institutionalized for at least two years, when he will be entitled to a release hearing. If he is not found sane, he will be entitled to similar hearings every two years.

However, under Yaggy's ruling, the burden of proof is on Popal for as long as 55 years, when it would shift to the prosecution to show why he should remain hospitalized.

The unemployed automotive worker is still charged with murder in Alameda County, where he allegedly began his attacks by running down a man on a Fremont street. Alameda County prosecutors had agreed to let Popal's San Francisco case be resolved before they put him on trial.

If Popal is convicted in Alameda County, he would not have to go to state prison until doctors determine he is legally sane in the San Francisco case, said his attorney, Sandy Feinland.

District Attorney Kamala Harris called the resolution "appropriate."

"As we all know, his conduct was outrageous and clearly life-threatening," Harris said. "The fact is, he is likely to spend the rest of his life in a high-security" mental hospital.

She said prosecutors in Alameda County "will do, I'm sure, the appropriate thing."

Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said, "We will now get him, and our prosecution will go on."

He said San Francisco prosecutors had not told him about the insanity plea agreement in advance. "After 38 years in this business, I have no feelings," he said. "We'll get him back, our court will appoint doctors to examine him, and we will see what they say and determine how we're going handle it."

Feinland said Popal's family was "happy he is going to get help rather than prison."

Mental problems
Relatives and Popal's attorneys said he had been hospitalized for mental problems at least twice in 2006 before the hit-run attacks, and that he had confessed to a San Francisco killing that police concluded he did not commit.

In the court-ordered evaluations in San Francisco, one doctor found that Popal's "history of mental illness is clear and rather compelling" and concluded he suffered from a "genuine psychotic disorder."

Popal has been hearing voices ordering him to hurt people since he was 18 and has suffered from hallucinations, the doctor said.

During the hit-run attacks, another doctor found, Popal believed that a "tall dark person" was in the passenger seat of his Honda Pilot sport utility vehicle, urging him to drive faster and run down people.

Both doctors concluded that Popal lacked the mental capacity to know what he was doing was wrong.

Mike Mahoney, the now-retired San Francisco police inspector who investigated the case, scoffed at the insanity argument.

"He knew exactly what he did. He told me exactly what he did," Mahoney said.

The most seriously injured of Popal's victims in San Francisco, massage therapist Susan Rajic, was paralyzed from the neck down when she was struck near her home at Laurel and California streets. Mahoney said he would like to bring her before a judge and "let the court see what the hell he did. She has a life sentence to a wheelchair."

Fremont victim was first


Authorities believe Popal began his attacks in Fremont by ramming 54-year-old Stephen Wilson with his SUV as Wilson walked in a bike lane on Fremont Boulevard. He died at the scene.

Popal then drove to San Francisco and, in the course of half an hour shortly after lunchtime, ran down people from the Tenderloin to Laurel Heights, authorities said. Most of the injured were hit along a corridor of roughly 10 blocks running west from Pacific Heights.

Witnesses described seeing the black SUV chasing pedestrians and bicyclists up the street and across lawns. In some cases, the driver circled back to hit people prone in the street.

The attack finally stopped when police cruisers boxed in Popal's SUV outside a drugstore on Spruce Street near California Street.

Officers said Popal had calmly told them that "everyone needs to be killed." He said he had thought about killing people "since yesterday," according to a police report.

"I planned to kill those people I ran over," police quoted him as saying. "They needed to be killed."

Popal lived with his mother and father in Fremont, and had traveled to his native Afghanistan a month before the attacks to marry a woman who had been picked out for him by his parents, other relatives said.

Little freedom


They said Popal's parents kept a close eye on him and allowed him little freedom because of what they described as his mental instability and their desire to shield him from "evil people."

Popal attended college at San Jose State and the former Cal State Hayward, and had worked at the Nummi automotive plant in Fremont and at a local business that makes automated teller machines, relatives said.

Before the hit-run rampage, his contact with law enforcement amounted to traffic tickets in Fremont, Pleasanton and Palo Alto.

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Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA)
March 18, 2008 Tuesday - Main Edition
State of mind at issue in killing; Judge weighs penalty for man who slit grandfather's throat;
BYLINE: Karen Dorn Steele Staff writer
SECTION: B; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 542 words


On a summer night in 2006, Ryan Michael Snow brought his grandfather a soft drink, stepped behind him, placed one hand on his head - and slit his throat with a pocketknife he'd bought two days earlier.

Snow then walked to a neighborhood restaurant for a glass of wine as his grandfather bled to death.

The facts aren't in dispute in the death of James Bittick on July 29, 2006. Lawyers for the state and the defense agree that Snow killed his grandfather. They also agree the 24-year-old is mentally ill.

But the lawyers disagree on Snow's punishment.

Spokane County prosecutors are asking Spokane County Superior Court Judge Gregory D. Sypolt for a first-degree murder verdict and a prison sentence. The public defender's office is asking Sypolt to declare Snow not guilty by reason of insanity - sending him to Eastern State Hospital to serve out his sentence.

In closing arguments before Sypolt Monday in a bench trial that started last week, deputy prosecutor Dale Nagy said Snow was angry that Bittick - who witnesses said also suffered from bipolar disease - had ordered him to unload his grandparents' car when they returned from a trip to the lake.

Snow bought the knife used to kill Bittick shortly before the confrontation and told investigators that he decided to "euthanize" his grandfather after Bittick threatened to have him sent to a mental hospital, Nagy said.

Forensic psychiatrists who testified for the state in Snow's trial said that while he is bipolar, he understood his acts were wrong.

"The reason for killing his grandfather was clear - he'd had enough of grandfather," Nagy said.

While the killing of Bittick was "horrific," what is in dispute is Snow's state of mind and "whether he could have premeditated this," said deputy public defender Kari Reardon.

Emergency personnel who arrived at the murder scene at 2711 N. Atlantic said Snow was "incoherent and babbling," Reardon said. He later talked to detectives about working for the CIA and being "under protection" from unspecified agents.

Snow also told a TV station he'd received a telepathic message from Superior Court Judge Maryann C. Moreno to kill his attorney, according to court documents. While in jail, he tried to club his lawyer on the back of the head, Reardon said.

He is also charged with fourth-degree assault for attacking another inmate in the Spokane County Jail on July 30, 2006.

The public defender criticized local police detectives for chaining Snow to a wall at the public safety building while they interrogated him - only taking him out of his handcuffs, at 1:55 a.m., when they wanted to photograph him. Snow was read his Miranda warnings and waived his constitutional right to have a lawyer present, according to a police affidavit.

After Snow's grandfather was dead, Snow bent over him, kissed his head, then "dipped his finger in a pool of blood and drew a circle on his chest," Reardon said.

"He showed the detectives that. It shows psychosis," she added.

"The defense has met its burden. At the July killing, he could not distinguish right from wrong," Reardon said, asking Sypolt for a not guilty verdict that would send Snow to Eastern State Hospital to serve out his term.

Sypolt said he will deliver his verdict at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

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Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
March 13, 2008 Thursday
Abington man who confessed killing his his mother was delusional, psychiatrist says
BYLINE: Larry King, The Philadelphia Inquirer
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 632 words


Mar. 13--Confessed killer Patrick Hughes-Bygott, in the words of a psychiatrist, "was more in his own world than in our world" as he stumbled his way through early adulthood.

Delusion and reality vied for position in his life, while academic promise fell victim to fears that the mob was after him and that his college roommates were CIA moles.

Both worlds were in play Aug. 16, the morning Hughes-Bygott, 22, stabbed his mother in Bensalem. Ellen Hughes-Bygott, 56, suffered more than 60 wounds, delivered with such force that one knife broke and a second was bent.

Psychiatrist Timothy J. Michals testified in Bucks County Court yesterday that Patrick Hughes-Bygott was not legally insane in that he knew he was killing someone and knew that it was wrong.

He was, however, suffering from psychotic delusions at the time of the attack, the psychiatrist said.

"He made a conscious decision [to kill] based on psychotic beliefs," Michals said. "He was out of control. This was a frenzied murder, and I think he was delusional."

Michals' testimony came on the second day of a degree-of-guilt hearing in the case. Hughes-Bygott pleaded guilty Tuesday to a general homicide charge. Judge John J. Rufe must now decide whether the slaying was first-degree murder, third-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.

The hearing will resume on April 27 with testimony from a second mental-health expert who has been out of the country and unavailable.

Hughes-Bygott's attorneys contend that his mental condition rendered him unable to form the intent to kill required for a first-degree murder conviction.

An example of his delusions, they say, are his statements to police officers that his mother was starving to death and that the killing was an act of mercy to end her suffering.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Hughes-Bygott was simply angry with his mother -- whom he claimed had physically and verbally abused him since childhood -- and killed her in a rage.

In an examination at the Bucks County prison last fall, Hughes-Bygott told Michals his mother had beaten and berated him since he was 4.

"He said he thinks his mother loved him, but she was mentally ill," Michals said.

Hughes-Bygott graduated from St. Joseph's Preparatory School with a 3.2 grade point average, and attended the University of Vermont for 21/2 years, majoring in political science.

But he regarded himself as an outcast, Michals said, taunted and rejected by his peers and "discriminated against" by college faculty and administrators -- or so he claimed.

By college, Hughes-Bygott was drinking heavily, smoking marijuana constantly, and experimenting with LSD, Michals said. This may have exacerbated psychotic episodes in which he said his roommates were spies and that the federal government was torturing him, Michals said.

Hughes-Bygott left college in 2007 and lived alone in an Abington house owned by his parents, who were divorcing.

Ellen Hughes-Bygott had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Michals said, but was neither anorexic nor starving, as her son claimed. She had been living with her 90-year-old mother in Bensalem, who witnessed the slaying and called police.

Ellen Hughes-Bygott "was mean to him, and his father supports that history," Michals testified. "I think [Patrick] had an intent to kill her, but it was delusional."

Contact staff writer Larry King

at 215-345-0446 or lking@phillynews.com

To see more of The Philadelphia Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com. Copyright (c) 2008

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The Associated Press State & Local Wire
February 28, 2008 Thursday 2:03 AM GMT
Man not guilty because of insanity in sword killings of wife, son
BYLINE: By The Associated Press
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL
LENGTH: 353 words
DATELINE: SANFORD Fla.


A Seminole County man accused of killing his wife and 11-year-old son with a 3-foot sword has been found not guilty by a judge.

A judge agreed with four mental health experts for the defense and prosecution Wednesday that Franklyn Duzant was hallucinating and insane when he decapitated his wife and fatally stabbed his son.

Neighbors watched in June 2006 as 42-year-old Duzant chased the boy to a neighbor's yard and killed him.

Duzant said he was the target of a CIA and KKK conspiracy and reptiles could read his lips.

Duzant had agreed to forgo a jury trial. Seminole County Circuit Judge Donna McIntosh ordered him to a secure state mental hospital.

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The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
January 4, 2008 Friday - Final Edition
Father found insane in beheading
BYLINE: Mandy Locke, Staff Writer
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 671 words


SMITHFIELD -- Amber Violette says her husband John begged her to skip work last Jan. 12. He believed that the apocalypse was going to destroy the Eastern seaboard that day.

John Violette's revelation spooked Amber, but she went to work anyway.

She couldn't hear the voice of God doctors say drove John Violette to stab their 4-year-old daughter, Katlin, with a kitchen knife and then behead her.

On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Jack Thompson determined that John Violette was insane that day. As a result, he ruled that Violette is not guilty, ensuring that Violette will never stand trial for her killing.

Amber Violette, tormented by her decision to go to work, begged the judge for that outcome.

"I want him to be able to be treated. I still have hope," Amber Violette, thin and tired from weeping, whispered from the witness stand.

John Violette will be held indefinitely at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh unless he can convince a judge he's no longer mentally ill or a danger to others. He will join 27 other North Carolinians held at Dix because a judge or jury found them to be insane at the time of their crimes.

Three doctors testified in Johnston County Superior Court on Thursday about the voices and delusional spiritual mission that guided John Violette. District Attorney Susan Doyle consented to the hearing before a jury trial because the state doctor whom prosecutors must turn to at trial believed Violette should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Charles Vance, a forensic psychiatrist who works for Dix, gave this account:

A month before Katlin's death, Violette heard the voice of God tap him to join the "CIA: Christ Intelligence Agency." The voice told him that by acts as simple as clicking his pen and taking out the trash he was helping cast out the world's evil.

On Jan. 12, though, the voice insisted that Katlin was possessed with an evil spirit. Violette went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed Katlin several times before decapitating her. To contain the evil spirit, he stuffed her body in a trash can and ordered the family dog to guard it.

He then rushed to Raleigh-Durham International Airport to try to catch a flight to Montana, where fellow "CIA" agents would gather for the millennial reign described in the Bible's Book of Revelation. Not finding a direct flight to Montana, Violette flew to Washington, D.C., instead. The voice told him Katlin would be buried there as a reward for her sacrifice hours before.

"He was being moved like a chess piece, like he had no control over his actions," Vance told the judge.

Vance and other doctors have diagnosed Violette with paranoid schizophrenia and say the illness caused him to break so hard from reality last January that he couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong.

"He thought he was attacking an evil spirit," Vance said. "He wasn't aware of the nature of his actions."

It's not clear what sense John Violette makes of his daughter's death, his illness and his future. His attorney Bob Denning said he wasn't sure Violette knew the meaning of the judge's ruling.

In court, John Violette sat behind a table and bounced his left leg, shackled to the other at his ankles. He wiped a single tear from his eye when Vance described his daughter's slaying. Mostly, Violette hunched forward, staring straight ahead as he clenched his jaw.

As he shuffled out of courtroom trailing a sheriff's deputy, he managed a weak smile at his wife of eight years. His family, ministers and friends from Colonial Baptist Church sobbed as he left, many bowing their heads in thanks for the mercy of the judge's ruling.

When asked how she could stand by the man who killed her little girl, Amber Violette rattled down a list with such sureness it seemed like she'd repeated it a hundred times. Amber Violette said she trusts God to make good of this horror and she knows Katlin is with Jesus in Heaven.

"John is the most loving, compassionate, gentle man," she said. "And I know he would never do anything like this unless something were wrong."

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
December 1, 2007 Saturday - Final Edition
Man gets life in ax murder; Son who killed mother at Oconomowoc home will be eligible for parole in 50 years
BYLINE: MIKE JOHNSON, Staff, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
SECTION: B News; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 630 words


Waukesha - Saying the ax murder of Gloria Jean Totzke by her son might be the most brutal, violent and gruesome criminal act he has seen in his career, a judge imposed a life prison sentence Friday for Mark Totzke, with no chance for parole until he is an old man.

It was not the harshest sentence Totzke, 29, could have received for the 2006 slaying, but it came close.

Under state law, a life term is mandatory after a conviction of first-degree intentional homicide.

The only significant issue that Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee S. Dreyfus Jr. had to decide was whether to impose life with no possibility for parole, or when Totzke should become eligible for parole.

Dreyfus determined Totzke would not be eligible for parole for 50 years. With credit for jail time already served, Totzke would be 78 when his first chance at parole arrives.

Parole "needs to be far enough out that if, indeed, you are going to be released at some point . . . you would not be in a position where you could be deemed to be potentially harmful to anyone else," Dreyfus told Totzke.

During the sentencing Friday, Deputy District Attorney Stephen J. Centinario Jr. argued for a parole eligibility date well beyond 20 years to ensure Totzke would never again "quietly enter a bedroom. . . with an ax in his hand with murderous intent."

According to court documents, the body of Gloria Jean Totzke, 59, was found in her bed at her Oconomowoc home Aug. 10, 2006. Blood was spattered throughout the room, and the ax used to kill her was on the floor beside the bed.

Authorities contended Mark Totzke killed his mother because she ridiculed him for being unemployed, the affidavit says. Centinario called the killing an evil plan.

While Gloria Jean Totzke was sleeping in her bed, her son quietly entered her bedroom, turned on a light and "rushed to the side of the bed, raising an ax over his head and swinging it," Centinario said Friday. "The defendant propelled that ax head at her neck and face at least 10 times."

Mark Totzke had asserted he was criminally insane when he committed the killing. He told mental health experts who examined him and police that he killed his mother because she was in on a CIA plot to control his life. He said he had been secretly drugged and fitted with a microchip in his brain by the CIA.

He pleaded guilty in October to first-degree intentional homicide and decided to have Dreyfus, rather than a jury, determine whether he deserved a life prison term or mental health treatment for the rest of his life.

No criminal insanity

The mental health experts who testified during the trial agreed Totzke was mentally ill, but two of the three said he could tell right from wrong. Based on that, Dreyfus ruled Nov. 12 that Totzke was not criminally insane.

Totzke's attorney, Anthony Rosario, argued Friday that Totzke should get a shot at parole in 20 years. If Totzke had not been mentally ill and suffering from delusions, he would not have killed his mother, Rosario said.

"He still believes that these are not delusions. . . . And he still to this day believes the CIA will step in and rescue him from this tragic situation," Rosario said.

Totzke speaks out

That was reflected in Totzke's statement to the judge.

"I know my mom will be sorely missed by her friends and family. I loved her also and mourn in her death. The beliefs I hold that set the stage for this tragedy have been described as delusions. I know this to be not true. Mental delusions do not produce physical manifestations. I hope one day that the truth will come out so justice can be served," he said Friday.

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City News Service
August 30, 2007 Thursday 11:29 AM PST
Insanity Plea From Man Accused of Fatally Stabbing Educator-Mother
BYLINE: KELLY WHEELER
LENGTH: 355 words
DATELINE: CHULA VISTA


A man charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of his educator-mother in her Chula Vista home pleaded not guilty by reason insanity today and will have his trial next year.

Kaijamar "Kai" Carpenter, 28, is accused in the Jan. 12 death of Diane Carpenter, an assistant principal at Eastlake High School in the South Bay.

A hearing is scheduled a week from today to determine which doctors will examine the defendant.

Superior Court Judge Robert Trentacosta set a Feb. 27 trial date for the guilt phase of Carpenter's case.

If the defendant is convicted, a sanity phase would follow to determine if Carpenter was sane at the time of the killing.

During a preliminary hearing in May, Chula Vista police Detective John Pene testified that Carpenter confessed to killing his mother in the shower. He told detectives he went to a bus stop, then caught a trolley before being arrested in City Heights.

Pene said Carpenter told him that he stabbed his mother with a steak knife from the kitchen.

The defendant told the detective that his mother wanted to throw him out of the house and was about to call the police when he stabbed her.

Pene said the defendant told him that he worked for the CIA, was very rich, and was trained to kill for law enforcement.

Carpenter's attorney at the time, Deputy Public Defender Kate Coyne, unsuccessfully urged a different judge to block her client's statements. She argued they were unreliable and involuntary because it was the detective, and not the defendant, who suggested the victim was killed during a confrontation at her home.

But Judge Esteban Hernandez concluded that it was the defendant who voluntarily said he stabbed his mother.

Coyne argued that Carpenter has a 10-year history of delusions, and said the detective should have figured that out from the grandiose proclamations he made during the post-arrest interrogation.

The defendant was apprehended around noon on Jan. 12 at El Cajon Boulevard and 51st Street.

Carpenter told a San Diego police officer who handcuffed him that he was "tired of running" and that he had stabbed someone.

The defendant faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

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The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)
April 12, 2007 Thursday - Sunrise Edition
Murderer must stay in psychiatric hospital
BYLINE: HOLLY DANKS, The Oregonian
SECTION: Local News; Pg. B03
LENGTH: 591 words
SUMMARY: Rex Gorger | A review panel says a man who stabbed three people isn't ready to leave


SALEM --The Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board, citing public safety concerns, Wednesday denied the release of a man judged guilty but insane for stabbing a friend to death and trying to kill a stranger and his own father.

Rex Anthony Gorger, now 27, was sentenced in 2002 to life in the Oregon State Hospital for the Dec. 26, 1998, killing of Chris Bowen, a former Tigard High School classmate.

Richard Bowen, the dead man's father, vehemently opposed Gorger's release. He told the psychiatric board that his son's killer "is an animal who can never be controlled. And if you think he can, you are only fooling yourself."

Gorger is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who abused marijuana, alcohol and LSD.

Surprised by the board's ruling, Bowen said afterward: "So we've won the battle for today, but the war goes on. I believe he needs to remain incarcerated for the remainder of his life."

Defense attorney Harris Matarazzo said he was disappointed Gorger wasn't released. Matarazzo described his client's mental illness as in remission.

"Just because somebody is mentally ill doesn't mean with treatment they can't do well in the community," he said.

Gorger, who did not testify Wednesday, is allowed to apply for a release hearing every six months. This was his first. He has been in the state hospital virtually since 1999.

Until his medication was adjusted two years ago, Gorger threatened to kill staff members and patients, assaulted patients, suffered irritability and did not want to complete relapse prevention classes.

Barry Kast, who serves on the review board, said he appreciated the concerns of the murder victim's family but noted that Gorger was improving.

However, Kast said that he and the two other board members unanimously decided that Gorger's "strides were made fairly recently" and that the conditions at this time were not right for his release.

Dr. Steven Fritz, a state hospital psychiatrist, dropped a bombshell during the hearing by testifying that Gorger still talks about being followed by the CIA and needs reassurance that no one is out to get him. However, Fritz said, he didn't think Gorger was dangerous and recommended that he be allowed to live in a group home run by Providence Adult Out-Patient Services.

Investigators said Gorger rambled about the CIA when confessing to killing Bowen and stabbing Theron Marrs in a Tualatin church parking lot before Christmas Eve services and his father two days later.

"We think he's extremely dangerous, and the evidence today was compelling that he still is dangerous," Chris Quinn, Washington County senior deputy district attorney, said Wednesday.

Doctors said Gorger has been attending therapy and treatment sessions at a Providence center three or four times a week and staying overnight with his parents.

Prosecutors and Bowen's parents said they were unaware Gorger was leaving the state hospital until recently.

A move to a group home would have been more restrictive than what the hospital allows, said Lawrence Betcher, who is in charge of Providence evaluations and has worked with Gorger for the past year. The home, while not locked, has alarms on the doors and staff on duty 24 hours a day, Betcher said.

ILLUSTRATION: Gorger He still talks of CIA following him

Holly Danks: 503-221-4377; hollydanks@news.oregonian.com

======

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
December 20, 2005, Tuesday, BC cycle
Appeals court: Man who argued insanity should get new trial
BYLINE: By GARY D. ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 658 words
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.


A Guilford County man convicted of killing his best friend should get a new trial because a prosecutor undermined his insanity defense by pointing out that he was lucid enough to not talk to investigators, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

Joel Mark Durham believed the CIA was controlling him and had replaced his eyes with their cameras. He told doctors the agency would kill him if he didn't kill Danny Gaiser, his friend of 25 years, according to trial evidence.

Three mental health experts, including one retained by the state, found that Durham was legally insane at the time Gaiser was killed, according to the unanimous opinion from a three-judge panel. Prosecutors presented lay witnesses who testified they believed Gaiser was sane at the time of the crime.

On Gaiser's 39th birthday in July 2002, Durham went to Gaiser's home with a rifle and opened fire, according to a witness. When the witness asked Durham not to shoot him, the shooter replied, "This doesn't concern you. It is a CIA hit."

During closing arguments, a prosecutor quoting a state psychiatrist said Durham offered little to a detective after his arrest except to say 'yes' when he saw a photograph of Gaiser.

"Why does he wait until he talks to his experts when he knows they're interviewing him to determine whether he's insane or not?" Guilford District Attorney Stuart Albright was quoted as saying. "Why didn't he tell the police then, if we are going to talk about the truth? I guess the same reason why we don't know where the gun was on the day of the murder. ... The fact is the defendant knew the difference between right and wrong."

A jury took about 90 minutes to find Durham guilty of first-degree murder, rejecting his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. He is serving a life prison sentence.

Writing for the panel, Judge Robin Hudson disagreed with state attorneys that the prosecutor's remarks simply laid out inconsistencies between Durham's behavior and demeanor with police and with the psychiatrist.

"The prosecutor's statements referred repeatedly to defendant's silence, not merely to his behavior, and clearly urged the jury to infer that defendant was sane enough to know that remaining silent was in his best interest," Hudson wrote. Based on earlier case law, she added, "this the state may not do."

Appeals court Judges Wanda Bryant and Ann Marie Calabria concurred with Hudson's ruling.

The state Attorney General's Office will review the opinion with the Guilford district attorney, a spokeswoman said.

Durham is taking medication in prison but isn't getting the psychiatric treatment that an insanity verdict would provide him, his lawyer said.

"It's one of the saddest cases that I've ever seen," said lawyer Ann Petersen. "All of the experts say he's crazy, and he's killed his best friend ... he has to live with this the rest of his life."

The appeals court also agreed that the trial court judge erred by allowing the state to cross-examine experts using testimony from a sanity hearing held before the trial.

In other opinions issued Tuesday, the Court of Appeals upheld at least three other murder convictions:

- The court found no errors in the second-degree murder conviction of Becky Sehorn Hillier, who was sentenced to at least 13 years and one month in prison in the slaying of her boyfriend in Mecklenburg County. Her attorneys argued at trial that her boyfriend shot himself in the head during a July 2001 argument.

- The court upheld the first-degree murder convictions of Omeako Lavon Brisbon for the 2001 shooting deaths of two brothers in the parking lot of a Cumberland County fast-food restaurant. Brisbon is serving life in prison without parole.

- The judges found no errors in the first-degree murder conviction of Jacob Cameron Jr., who was found guilty of choking his girlfriend to death in Winston-Salem in July 2003. He is also serving a life sentence.

======

The Advocate
December 1, 2005 Thursday - Acadiana Edition
Doctors endorse man's release into halfway house
BYLINE: RICHARD BURGESS; Acadiana bureau
SECTION: B; Pg. 01
LENGTH: 787 words
DATELINE: LAFAYETTE


LAFAYETTE - A man confined to a state mental institution for stabbing to death a doctor while in a delusional rage should be released into a halfway house, psychiatrists at the institution testified Wednesday.

Clarence J. Saloom, 54, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1993 killing of Dr. Joseph Henry Tyler, who had told Saloom he was being committed to a mental hospital.

Saloom's doctors at East Louisiana Mental Health System hospital have recommended his conditional release into a residential treatment facility - what could be a step toward further freedom.

State Judge John Trahan took the case under advisement. He said he planned to issue a written ruling but did not indicate when.

At a hearing Wednesday to determine if a judge will sign off on the move, psychiatrists called Saloom a "model patient" whose paranoid schizophrenia has been in remission for six years and will remain so if he continues to take his medication.

"He expressed a desire to me to prove to the world he has changed. ... I believe what we see now is genuine," said Dr. Alan Newman, a psychiatrist who has worked with Saloom for seven years.

In 2003, Saloom was granted passes for supervised day excursions from the mental hospital, and the possibility a further freedom worries Tyler's widow, Bobbie Tyler.

"I don't believe CJ (Saloom) is ready for the program. Who's to say he's not going to get a knife and stab somebody else," she said. "... I don't believe I'll ever be happy with his freedom because I'm afraid of what he might do."

Being transported from the courthouse in shackles, Saloom said he wanted "just to progress. ... One step at a time."

Saloom, a member of a prominent Lafayette family, stabbed Dr. Tyler after sneaking a knife into Acadiana Mental Health Center.

At Saloom's second-degree murder trial, defense attorneys argued that the man was under the delusion that Tyler was part of a CIA-led conspiracy to destroy him because he had uncovered a secret program involving mind-controlling light rays.

Before the stabbing, Saloom had been in and out of mental health treatment for years. Doctors said his substance abuse problems, which included addiction to opiates and amphetamines, began in his teens and he began to show signs of schizophrenia in his 20s.

Saloom was admitted to the state mental hospital in Jackson in 1996 at age 45 after a judge deemed him not guilty by reason of insanity.

Saloom showed little marked improvement until 1999, when he began taking the anti-psychotic drug Risperidone, according to testimony from his doctors.

"It's not often you see a patient that has such a good response to medication," said Dr. Herbert LeBourgeois, another state psychiatrist who has worked with Saloom.

Both LeBourgeois and Newman said Saloom is one of the better patients at the mental hospital and has a low chance of remission if he continues taking medication and avoids illegal drugs.

Assistant State Attorney General Julie Cullen, who argued against the conditional release, presented no witnesses on Wednesday.

But she questioned Saloom's doctors on whether their patient was truly in remission or hiding mental problems in an effort to get more freedom.

She also questioned whether the proposed halfway house offered a strict enough environment to ensure that Saloom stays on his medication and has no access to illegal drugs, which were blamed for exacerbating his mental problems.

If the judge approves the conditional release, Saloom would be transferred to Harmony Transitional Center in Baton Rouge early next year.

The home serves mainly people who have been committed to state custody after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in criminal cases.

Of the 45 residents at Harmony, six were charged with second-degree murder.

Harmony Program Director Ralph Griffin said patients there are strictly monitored but are allowed on unsupervised outings as their treatment program progresses - short trips to a nearby store, overnight stays with family members.

Under the conditional release guidelines proposed by Saloom's attorney, Thomas Guilbeau, unsupervised outings would need court approval.

Guilbeau said it is too early to tell if the Harmony center would be a step toward greater freedom for Saloom.

"All he wants is a chance to prove he is not dangerous," Newman said. "I think he recognizes this may be the last stop for him."

State law allows a defendant found not guilty by reason of insanity to be released from custody if a judge finds that he is no longer mentally ill and no longer a danger to himself or others.

Guilbeau has said he doubts that will ever happen, but he said Saloom does have the right to a less restrictive environment.

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The San Diego Union-Tribune
October 27, 2005 Thursday
Trial under way in fatal attack on family; Prosecutor: Suspect tired of caring for parents, boy
BYLINE: Jose Luis Jimenez, STAFF WRITER
SECTION: ZONE; Pg. NC-1; NI-2
LENGTH: 563 words
DATELINE: VISTA


VISTA -- A Carlsbad man stabbed his father to death and severely beat his mother and great-nephew because he was tired of caring for them, a prosecutor said yesterday during opening statements of a murder trial in Superior Court.

Thomas Earl Johnson, 57, is charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault stemming from the Feb. 16, 2004, attacks. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

If convicted on all charges, Johnson will face 25 years to life in prison, prosecutor Robert Stein said.

During his opening statement, Stein told the jury that Johnson had become resentful of having to take care of his elderly parents, Robert and Rita Johnson, and his great-nephew, Corey Lucas, who was 5 at the time. During an argument with his then-80-year-old mother, Johnson became enraged and attacked her and then his family.

"(Johnson) didn't stop. He kept on stabbing her," Stein said. "(Corey) runs downstairs and played dead so his uncle wouldn't hurt him anymore.

Deputy Public Defender Dan Segura said during his opening statement that his client has a 10-year history of schizophrenia that was controlled with anti-psychotic medication. In May 2003, his doctor took him off the medication, and Johnson's condition slowly deteriorated, the lawyer said.

"Untreated mental illness is what caused this to happen," Segura told the jury. "Not money. Not anger."

If Johnson is convicted, the trial will switch to a sanity phase that will determine his punishment. If the jury finds Johnson guilty and determines that he was insane at the time of the attacks, he will be sent to a state mental hospital, where he can be released by the court if he regains his sanity. If jurors find him guilty and determine that he was sane, Johnson will be sent to prison.

Johnson, an Air Force veteran, traveled the world as a flight engineer until he settled in Colorado.

In 1992, the family noticed a change in Johnson's demeanor when he began to complain that the FBI, CIA and KGB were spying on him. Robert Johnson, 86, had his son committed to a mental hospital for two months as doctors evaluated his condition, Segura said.

Upon his release, Johnson was prescribed anti-psychotic medication, and he moved into his parents' Carlsbad home on Woodridge Circle. Robert and Rita Johnson were given power of attorney over their son's life, meaning that he couldn't write a check from his own bank account without his parents' signature, the prosecutor said.

The humiliation of having someone else control every aspect of his life, combined with the pressure of caring for his ailing parents, led to the attacks, Stein said.

The afternoon of Feb. 16, Johnson argued with his mother about the work he had to do around the house, Stein said.

Rita Johnson elbowed her son twice, and he retaliated by repeatedly punching her in the face and choking her to the point of unconsciousness, Stein said.

The boy ran upstairs when he heard the commotion and was stabbed in the neck and had his jaw broken by his uncle, Stein said. At some point, Johnson grabbed a steak knife and stabbed his father numerous times as he lay in bed, the prosecutor said.

Johnson then left the home and was arrested 12 days later as he slept in his car in Monterey, his father's blood still on his jeans, Stein said.

The trial is scheduled to last one month.

Jose Jimenez: (760) 737-7578; jose.jimenez@uniontrib.com

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San Jose Mercury News (California)
February 16, 2005 Wednesday PENINSULA/S.F. EDITION
SUSPECT'S COMPETENCY AGAIN FOCUS OF HEARING; PROSECUTORS ARGUE MENTAL ILLNESS DOESN'T PRECLUDE
FITNESS FOR TRIAL
BYLINE: JESSIE SEYFER, Mercury News
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 567 words


Marvin Patrick Sullivan has told doctors for years that the CIA and the Italian Mafia want to kill him, that he is a NASA astronaut, and that he's a half-man, half-angel sent to do God's bidding.

At a competency hearing Tuesday in San Mateo County court, the accused cop killer calmly stated on a videotape that he had been to heaven twice and that it was a quiet place, far away in "deep space."

Yet state mental hospital doctors concluded in January that Sullivan was mentally competent to stand trial, despite his delusions and his diagnosis as a schizophrenic. He understands the charges against him, they say, and can assist his attorneys in his defense.


County prosecutors are eager to begin trial proceedings against Sullivan, who has slipped in and out of competence several times in the seven years since he allegedly gunned down Millbrae police officer David Chetcuti. Prosecutors believe the Chetcuti family deserves a resolution after all this time.

"I agree that he is a paranoid schizophrenic and has a delusional system," Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Tuesday outside court. But as long as Sullivan stays on his medication, the delusions "do not interfere with his competency," he said.

Sullivan's attorneys, however, believe it's ludicrous for such a clearly disturbed person to stand trial on a case where capital punishment is under consideration. They are particularly troubled that Sullivan, in his own words, "was told by my Lord and savior . . . to ask for the death penalty."

On Tuesday, Sullivan's attorneys took issue with the findings of doctors from the Napa State Hospital, where Sullivan has spent two lengthy stints since the April 25, 1998 shooting. Defense attorneys presented their own doctor, who said Sullivan was not at all competent to stand trial. The videotape, made Thursday, accompanied that doctor's testimony.

"He wishes to go to trial so finally he will be able to expose the government . . . for their previous attempts on his life," said Dr. Pablo Stewart, who has interviewed Sullivan at length. "That is his sole motivation."

Sullivan has a good understanding of the legal system, Stewart said. "He's learned to present himself very well, yet underneath that, he remains very psychotic and delusional."

On the videotape, Sullivan says he understands the charges against him and clearly states them without error. In the next breath, and with the same calm manner, he describes receiving flashes of light that signify messages from God.

Prosecutors say that if Sullivan goes to trial, attorneys have other options at their disposal, such as pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. Also, defense attorneys are not required to make whatever delusional legal arguments Sullivan may want.

But defense attorneys can't simply ignore Sullivan, said Dek Ketchum, one of Sullivan's lawyers. "The choice of life or death is up to him," he said.

Additionally, only Sullivan can decide whether he wants to testify at trial or whether he wants to pursue an insanity plea, Ketchum said.

Today, Wagstaffe is scheduled to present the Napa State Hospital doctors' findings. Afterward, Judge James Ellis may rule on Sullivan's competency.

"If the doctor taking care of him for seven years thinks he's competent, who couldn't find him competent?" said Charles Chetcuti, Dave Chetcuti's brother, outside the hearing.

======

Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT)
November 7, 2003 Friday
Man found to be insane in 2001 hammer death case
BYLINE: DANIEL TEPFER
SECTION: LOCAL/REGIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 432 words


BRIDGEPORT - A city man, who beat another man to death with a framing hammer because he thought the victim was an anti-government assassin dispatched to kill him, was found not guilty Wednesday by reason of insanity.
His hands and feet shackled, Michael Kovacs, 36, showed no emotion as the verdict was announced by a panel of three Superior Court judges.

He was ordered confined for evaluation at a state psychiatric hospital for 90 days.


Kovacs was charged with murder for the June 17, 2001, beating death of 38-year-old Norberto Osario of Yacht Street.

During the two-day trial before Judges Richard Damiani, Howard Owens and Lubbie Harper, Assistant State's Attorney Margaret Kelley presented evidence that Kovacs killed Osario while they were riding in a car on Barnum Avenue.

The driver of the car testified he heard a cracking noise and then saw Kovacs hitting Osario in the back of the head with the hammer as he yelled, "You're a Roman, you're a freakin' Roman."

However, Dr. Frank Fortunati, a Yale University psychiatrist who examined Kovacs, testified the witness got it wrong. What Kovacs was actually yelling, he said, was, "He's a roamin'! He's Carlos," a reference to the international terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez known as Carlos the Jackal.

In a report put into evidence, Fortunati explained that Kovacs believed he worked for the CIA and would receive messages from fellow agents through horse race postings in The New York Post.

"He thought that the names of the horses were too strange to be real and they must be messages to various CIA agents," Fortunati testified.

Fortunati said Kovacs, who had formerly helped set up drug stings for the State Police, believed FBI agents got their messages from the greyhound entries in the same newspaper.

He also said Kovacs was also convinced the CIA had implanted a microphone in his nostril.

Sometime before the murder, Fortunati said Kovacs became concerned that Carlos the Jackal was after him. He initially believed Carlos had disguised himself as a Catholic priest at St. Charles Church on East Main Street.

However, Fortunati said that while riding in the car with the victim, Kovacs said he received a message that Osario was actually Carlos.

"He said it was his duty as a CIA agent to regulate him," the psychiatrist stated.

During the trial Kovacs, refused to drink the water on the table in front of him, telling his lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Jonathan Demerjian, he thought it was toxic.

Daniel Tepfer, who covers state courts and law enforcement issues, can be reached at 330-6308.

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The York Dispatch (York, PA)
October 7, 2003 Tuesday
Years of illness before killing; Doctors: Delusions led to fratricide
BYLINE: By ELIZABETH EVANS Dispatch/Sunday News
SECTION: TOP STORIES
LENGTH: 928 words


Killing his brother with a compound bow and arrow was, for James Callahan, the culmination of years of paranoia about family members and the government, born of a debilitating fear for his own life.

And as Callahan told two doctors, killing 26-year-old Michael Callahan III on Sept. 25, 2002, kept James Callahan from losing "The Game" -- a belief that Michael, their father, the Mafia and government spy agencies were working together to kill him.

To win, James Callahan had to stay alive, he told those doctors.

They diagnosed the 29-year-old Manheim Township man with paranoid schizophrenia.


"He believed there is a complicated conspiracy in the world that was trying to eliminate him ... requiring him to 'play the game' and that if he loses, he will be killed," Dr. Larry Rotenberg of Reading Hospital wrote in his court-ordered evaluation of James.

Based on recommendations from Rotenberg and Miami-based Dr. Bill Mosman, Common Pleas Judge Penny Blackwell on Friday found James Callahan not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

On her order, he was committed indefinitely to Mayview State Hospital in Allegheny County.

"[Doctors] both agreed he had no idea what he was doing," first deputy district attorney Tim Barker said.

James Callahan was shot repeatedly by Southwestern Regional Police after he aimed a bow and arrow at them, refusing to surrender after a five-hour police search that used K-9 units, night-vision goggles and a state police helicopter with infrared cameras.

When police found James Callahan, he was in a 20-foot-high tree stand. After he was arrested, police discovered he'd slashed his neck, right wrist and both ankles, court records state.

Sickness grew: Although James Callahan showed signs of mental illness in adolescence, it worsened as he grew older, doctors said, to the point that he was having delusions of persecution and grandeur, and even hearing voices. He believed his food was being poisoned and he was being exposed to carcinogens.

Because he could not function independently, he had lived at home since 2000, becoming increasingly paranoid and reclusive, avoiding everyone but family members, according to Rotenberg. He refused to eat any food not prepared and eaten by his mother and would not take medications.

Five days before the fatal shooting, a medical evaluation noted that James Callahan had barricaded himself in his attic bedroom, barring all windows and doors -- even in sweltering heat. He watched television there, scratching the TV with a fishing pole when he believed it was giving him messages or trying to "zap" him.

Mosman noted that as Michael Callahan's wedding date drew closer, James Callahan grew more agitated.

Although he didn't know it, his siblings were brainstorming about ways to have him committed to a mental institution after Michael's wedding.

'End game' near: James Callahan believed the wedding was a smoke screen so his brother could "bring a lot of people into the home ... [to] capture, torture and ultimately kill [him]," Mosman wrote.

He told the doctor, "The end game was near."

As people began arriving Sept. 24, James Callahan watched from his attic refuge:

"I saw their big cars, I saw them looking up at my room ... some of them were FBI and CIA cars," he told Mosman. "There was no place else to run, they were going to kill me."

His parents had taken all the guns from the home, but James Callahan found a weapon to protect himself and headed outside. Family members saw him, but assumed he was hunting squirrels.

"He did not want to be cornered in his room but knew that if he took off across country that with their vehicles, satellites and tracking skills they would hunt him down before he got any distance at all," Mosman wrote. "So, he took his bow and arrow up on the hill so he could look down and see who would be the 'one to come and do it.'"

When he saw his brother Michael walking toward him, he was not surprised, according to Mosman.

"Michael was behind this since childhood," James Callahan told the doctor.

"As he readied the bow and arrow, he was thinking of all the times Michael gave him LSD or put carcinogenic stuff in his water," Rotenberg said. "James says that he knew it was not right to kill people. He says that people are killed in wars. And there was 'a war between me and my brother.' At the time, he felt that killing his brother was justified."

Annual

I see no reason to assume these are anything other than sick people. Why do you think there is a mind control aspect to these sad crimes?

Those are interesting cases, but how do they amount to "mind control" murders, exactly?

Continued From First Post:


-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"As he readied the bow and arrow, he was thinking of all the times Michael gave him LSD or put carcinogenic stuff in his water," Rotenberg said. "James says that he knew it was not right to kill people. He says that people are killed in wars. And there was 'a war between me and my brother.' At the time, he felt that killing his brother was justified."

Annual evaluations: Barker said James Callahan will undergo annual evaluations to determine if his mental state has improved to the point where he should be released.

Rotenberg said antipsychotic medication has helped Callahan to an extent.

But, he wrote, "Like most people with his diagnosis, he has significant doubts about his own illness. And therefore, the minute he is not under supervision, will undoubtedly stop his medication."

"The prognosis for him getting better is highly guarded," Barker said. "Both doctors agree James Callahan needs to be institutionalized in a secure facility for a long period of time. He may be institutionalized for the rest of his life. ... Only Judge Blackwell has the authority to release him."

Barker said the ruling allows the Callahan family to be optimistic.

"They have hope that a cure may someday be found for their son, and if their son ... could be cured, he could be released. They deserve to have that hope," he said. "We have felt so horrible thinking about what this has done to their family. We have nothing but the deepest sympathy for what they've gone through."

======

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
August 9, 2002 Friday
Man unfit for murder trial, judge declares
BYLINE: CARRIE JOHNSON
SECTION: CITRUS TIMES; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 710 words
DATELINE: INVERNESS


James Utsey still may be tried on charges he fatally shot his mother outside a DeRosa convenience store, but it won't be this month.

After reviewing psychiatric evaluations performed by both the defense and the state, Circuit Judge Ric A. Howard on Thursday declared Utsey incompetent to stand trial and sent him to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee.

While the judge's actions put off Utsey's Aug. 12 trial, it doesn't mean Utsey won't eventually stand before a judge and jury. Doctors at the hospital will evaluate Utsey and could send him back to Citrus County if his status changes.


That could happen in two weeks or it may never happen, said Assistant State Attorney Don Scaglione.
Utsey, 31, who has been in jail since his arrest in December 2000, protested the judge's decision and angrily denounced the doctors who performed the psychiatric evaluations.

"I believe this is a response to me asserting my right to self representation," said Utsey, who has filed many motions without the help of his court-appointed attorney.

"I believe also this is a coverup of significant proportions . . . Both doctors are completely incapable of deciding that I'm incompetent," he said.

Utsey faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of his mother, Barbara, outside the Coastal food mart at County Road 488 and County Road 495.

According to court records, Utsey chased his mother's Jeep Cherokee to the store's parking lot the morning of Dec. 27, 2000. She ran screaming from her vehicle.

Utsey got out of his van and followed her to the side of the store, fired four or five shots, then drove away, the records said.

At least three people witnessed what happened moments before the shooting, and a store security camera pointed toward the parking lot captured some of what happened in the parking lot before the shooting.

Utsey was arrested by deputies in Citrus Springs after a brief chase.

Being declared incompetent for trial does not mean Utsey was insane at the time of the killing, Scaglione said. The judge's ruling applies only to Utsey's ability to understand his present circumstances and to assist his attorney at trial.

During the past few months, Utsey has become increasingly outspoken and inquisitive during his court hearings, requesting documents directly from the judge that are typically provided by the defense attorney. He has also filed a number of motions without the help of his lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Daniel Lewan.

His behavior has at times been erratic. He's asked the judge to pronounce his name UTT-sey one day, YOUT-sey the next.

At the request of the defense, Utsey was evaluated by a psychiatrist on June 24. During the examination, Utsey told Dr. Harry Krop he could prove two solar-powered chips had been implanted in his head.

Utsey also accused his parents of forcing him to practice deviant sexual behavior and surreptitiously taping him when he was young for use in child pornography. He offered no evidence to support his claims.

In his evaluation, Krop declared Utsey was unable to participate in the trial.

"Given his past acts of violence, it is this examiner's opinion that Mr. Utsey meets criteria for involuntary commitment and should be referred to a forensic psychiatric inpatient facility for stabilization and treatment," Krop wrote.

The prosecution's expert, Dr. Sidney J. Merin, reached a similar conclusion.

But Scaglione noted that each doctor was only allowed a few hours with Utsey. He will be more intensely scrutinized when he reaches the hospital in Chattahoochee.

"You might be able to make yourself nuts or incompetent during a short visit, but can you do it consistently, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?" he asked.

Scaglione said Utsey's father, Thomas, and his two older sisters have been continually updated on the progress of the trial. While disappointed, they accepted the court's decision to postpone the trial.

"They're hurt and upset that he would continue to malign and make unsupported allegations about the family," Scaglione said. "But they understand the system is not designed for them as survivors. It's designed for the defendants."

- Carrie Johnson can be reached at 860-7309 or cjohnson@sptimes.com.

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Lancaster New Era (Pennsylvania)
July 16, 2008 Wednesday
Judge: Lippiatt's Hearing To Be Public; Mental Health Treatment Of Woman Who Killed Her Two Sons Is Matter Of
Significant Public Concern.
BYLINE: Janet Kelley
SECTION: B; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 445 words
DATELINE: Lancaster, PA


When Meghan Lippiatt was found not guilty of killing her two young sons by reason of insanity, she became a free woman in Lancaster County.

These events, as well as Lippiatt's need for continued psychiatric treatment, are obviously matters of significant public concern,'' Lancaster County Court Judge James Cullen wrote in a ruling this week.

As a result, Cullen concluded, a hearing about whether Lippiatt, 34, of Mount Joy, should be ordered to continue mental health treatment will be open to the public.

That hearing has not yet been scheduled, in part because Cullen said he expected his decision will be appealed.

After Lippiatt was acquitted of the murder charges last December, Assistant District Attorney Kelly Sekula filed a request asking Cullen to order Lippiatt to continue mental health treatment and undergo further evaluation.

Lippiatt, through her attorney, Julie Cooper, objected to any public access. Cooper could not be reached for comment this morning.

Last month, Cullen heard the attorneys' arguments on the matter. On Monday, Cullen handed down a four-page opinion, ruling against Lippiatt, saying the mental health acts are presumptively open to the public and Lippiatt failed to convince him that there are legitimate grounds'' to close the hearing.

Lippiatt had argued that a public hearing would result in the disclosure of her mental health treatment since the time of her acquittal as well as the names of her counselors and psychiatrists.

In addition, Cullen noted that Lippiatt's concern that information regarding where she lives, works or receives treatment would become public does not warrant closing the hearing nor does her unsubstantiated claim of fear of retaliation.''

Without specific evidence,'' Cullen wrote, Lippiatt's assertion of a fear of retaliation is entirely speculative.''

Cullen also noted that, there was significant evidence regarding Lippiatt's mental health diagnosis presented at her public trial on the criminal charges.''

As a result, Cullen wrote, it is apparent that the disclosure of information of this type is an insufficient basis to close the hearing.''

The double homicide was discovered in April 2004, when Lippiatt called 911, telling dispatchers she had just killed her sons, Silas, 2, and Miles, 4 months.

She was arrested and charged with criminal homicide, but spent the next 3 1-2 years at either Lancaster County Prison or Norristown State Hospital, where she received treatment for her mental health problems.

In December 2007, Lippiatt went to trial before Cullen, without a jury. She maintained she felt evil forces were compelling her to kill her children and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

You may have missed it in the midst of all of that, M F Abernathy, but two of us already have been asking what your basis is for claiming that these murders may be related to "mind control."

What makes them "mind control" murders, and not murders committed by merely deranged people?

And as always ... URL LINKS to quoted articles would be MUCH appreciated.

elfismiles wrote:And as always ... URL LINKS to quoted articles would be MUCH appreciated.

All of the news articles are from the Lexis-Nexis newspaper article database. As far as WHY I say that thses are 'mind control murders', that
requires a lenghty response - - I will explain my beliefs as soon as possible.

Gee, I'm really glad I just wasted my time scrolling through all that cut-and-paste.

Thanks!

Has anyone here ever followed Rotten News or The Dreamin' Demon?

You could collect hundreds of equally gruesome cases from any other year in American history dating back to the 80s, at least. Probably 60s/70s, but then you've got problems with cases being covered up (before blood was popular entertainment) and lack of documentation in the form of Lexis-Nexus databases.

Unless someone's got a statistical overlay comparing this year to previous years, a parade of psychotic killers doesn't mean anything. It's also a stretch to claim there's a common thread of "mind control" here unless you've got background information on all the perps linking them to common people/organizations/locations.

Psychotic killers sometimes emerge in a psychotic civilization. What surprises me is that there aren't even more of them.

The United States has never been the picture of either civility or sanity, but this nation really started going stark raving mad with the National Security Act of 1947, and the creation of the CIA. This institutionalized propaganda machine has done incalculable harm to both emotional health and reason in the States.

It is no surprise that murderous madmen emerge in a mad, murderous culture.

In fact, such a culture breeds them.

I sometimes wonder if something triggers certain waves of mass shootings that are clumped together. Or events like the DC Sniper beltway serial shootings. Or various serial killers. I know its easy to say "trigger words" and "mind control manchurian", but sometimes one has to wonder.

Most of these are demonic attacks. Demons. Eternal evil angels. They're always roaming to cause destruction, and rarely they can take over weak human minds by hypnotism and persuasion. Read, for example, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and Hostage to the Devil by Malachi Martin. This is the best explanation, and the most prudent.

You know, I like you, man, but sometimes you sound more like Wilbur Whateley than Wilbur Whatley.

Wilbur Whatley wrote:Most of these are demonic attacks. Demons. Eternal evil angels. They're always roaming to cause destruction, and rarely they can take over weak human minds by hypnotism and persuasion. Read, for example, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and Hostage to the Devil by Malachi Martin. This is the best explanation, and the most prudent.

Well certainly even some authorities and friends of the boy believe that to be the case in the Pearl High School shooting. High weirdness abounds with that case.

People say "there cant be a large conspiracy thousands of years to control world governments and create events like 9/11 and WW2", and to that I think Wilbur may have the answer.

Wilbur Whatley wrote:Most of these are demonic attacks. Demons. Eternal evil angels. They're always roaming to cause destruction, and rarely they can take over weak human minds by hypnotism and persuasion. Read, for example, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and Hostage to the Devil by Malachi Martin. This is the best explanation, and the most prudent.

I have read that book, Wilbur, and to be honest it left me with some big questions... not theological questions either. Better to call them doubts, actually. Doubts about the veractity of the author.

I bought it the same day I got Trevor Ravenscroft's "Spear of Destiny" book about Hitler, which deals with similar issues of demon possession on a world-historical scale, and which left me with the same kind of doubts and questions.

The problem I had with Malachi Martin's accounts of those exorcisms was that I had never heard anything about them before, and I would've expected to, just in the general run of things. Obviously exorcism is a secret and private rite - the privacy of the victim and the priest must be protected - but if, as happened in the book, an exorcist had had his testicles pulled off by a demon-possessed transexual in the course of the casting out, I think I would've heard something about it.

Not just through the grapevine, either - I think I would've read about that in The Sun or the National Enquirer.

All I would ask is - are the cases documented in Hostage To The Devil documented anywhere else?