A Little Reminder That Insanity Often Only Delays Trial

 Paterson, N.J. (1973)

03/18/1973: Police charged a man, 33, with beating to death his wife and their three small children with a hammer. He was later transferred to a state mental hospital for evaluation. Psychiatrists determined he was “insane at the time and unable to stand trial.” In 1975, he was “declared to be sane enough to stand trial.” He had attempted suicide by a pill overdose. He was later “declared sane enough to stand trial.”

Category: family

Suicide: no

Cause: mental illness

Weapon: hammer[1]

---

[1] "Four Slain With Hammer," [Hackensack, N.J.] Record, Mar. 19, 1973, 6; “Mass Murder Suspect Sent to Hospital,” [Paterson, N.J.]. News, Mar. 21, 1973, 53; “Gallone Judged Sane,” [Paterson, N.J.]. News, Feb. 09, 1975, 2.]

Why Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill Matters

 Mill Valley, Cal. (1973)

Before 03/17/1973: “Police hunted today for a man in his early 20s seen leaving a burning home after a businessman, his wife and son were shot to death outside the hillside dwelling.” A neighbor saw the man leaving with a shotgun who rejected the neighbor’s poorly thought offer to help. “Go away,” was the response. Police found at least 22 shotgun shells.

At a subsequent trial of a man, 22, his defense attorney asserted that the murderer was paranoid schizophrenic and committed the murders because his friend, one of those murdered, “possessed supernatural powers which were bent of destroying [the murderer.” Also, “the Mafia was involved in his life and that Dan Shallock was involved and could not be killed, even by an H-Bomb.” “At one point he believed Dan Shallock was the devil, and to this day [the murderer] fear in his heart that Dan may come back.” The murderer had spent a month at Marin Community Mental Health Center, and in the days immediately prior to the slayings, his mother had been trying to persuade the youth to commit himself.”

It appears that the jury did not accept “not guilty by reason of insanity”; they convicted him of murder.

Category: family non-resident

Suicide: no

Cause: mental illness

Weapon: shotgun[1]

---

[1] "Seek Suspect In Triple Murder Of Calif. Family," [Lowell, Mass] Sun, Mar. 17, 1973, 4; “Attorney Says Bedayan Killed Mill Valley Family,” San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 01, 1973, 5; “2 Honored by Peace Officers,” [San Rafael, Cal.] Daily Independent Journal, Jan. 27, 1975, 12.

Warning Signs Ignored

 

Torrance, Cal. (1973)

02/11/1973: Police investigated a missing person report and four theater employees. They were at first unsure if the victims were shot or stabbed to death It turned out that he used a gun to get compliance but used a knife to slit their throats. They could not be identified at first because of the amount of blood on their bodies. The safe was open.

Subsequent investigation into a similar business robbery that only resulted in one murder and the suspect’s suicide in jail led police to surmise that a long-time criminal, 30, with an extensive psychiatric history, which included repeated warnings that he was a murder-in-training. Police arrested him for misdemeanor traffic warrants; he committed suicide in jail. He committed the murders after a detailed casing of the theater. He told his roommate that “if he didn’t come back there was no reason to feel guilty. If everything went right, he would have $2,000 owed to him and his roommate would read about in the newspapers.”

Category: public

Suicide: no

Cause: robbery

Weapon: knife[1]

---

[1] "4 Found Murdered At Theater Office; Vault Cleaned Out," Los Angeles Times, Feb. 12, 1973, 1; “Society Ignored Danger Signals in Maheu’s Life,” [San Pedro, Cal.] News-Pilot, Sep. 25, 1973, 5; “Maheu’s Death Sealed The Fully Story of Mass Killing,” [San Pedro, Cal.] News-Pilot, Sep. 25, 1973, 5.

I Do Not Live There Anymore, But This Problem is Not Local

 8/25/26 Idaho Statesman:

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials determined that the 41-year-old suspected of killing a young man on the Boise River Greenbelt isn’t competent to stand trial. Despite the findings of that evaluation, however, the decision to commit Ross Wardlaw for behavioral health treatment in an attempt to restore his competency for his murder trial hasn’t been decided.

Health and Welfare was ordered to evaluate Wardlaw’s mental condition after his public defender raised concerns of “a competency issue” last month. Not only did the evaluation, which is sealed from the public, find that he’s unable to make informed decisions about his treatment and case, but it determined that he’s “dangerously mentally ill,” 4th Judicial District Magistrate Judge Theodore Tollefson said in court Tuesday. Someone designated as such presents “a substantial risk of physical harm to other persons as manifested by evidence of homicidal or other violent behavior” and is “dangerous to such a degree that a maximum security treatment setting is required,” according to state law. When asked whether the prosecution objected to the report’s findings, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Robert Bleazard asked the judge for additional time to review other documentation regarding Wardlaw’s mental health history in order to allow his office to do its “due diligence.”

This guy has a long history of mental illness-related crimes. So much damage done to satisfy the fantasy that mental illness does not exist.

Sadly, not unique. 8/19/26 WJON:

LK RIVER (WJON News) -- A man accused of killing his mother in a brutal 2020 attack in their Big Lake home has been found not guilty by reason of mental illness.

A Sherburne County judge has ruled that 26-year-old Eric Jordahl was laboring under such a defect of reason that he didn't know the nature of his acts or the wrongfulness of his behavior. He was previously found guilty of 1st-degree premeditated murder and two counts of 2nd-degree murder in the killing of Rosalie Johnson....

In the judge's findings of fact from the first phase of the trial, Jordahl beat his mother, stabbed her several times, then began to dismember and cannibalize Johnson while she was still alive. Court records show Jordahl perceived his mother to be a non-human entity that a higher power commanded him to kill.

Yes. The defense attorney does not even need to argue this case. Those facts alone are sufficient.

8/12/26 WNEP:

"Our investigation found that Samantha Bruno shot her father, Anthony Bruno, twice in the head, causing his death. We further determined that she killed her father's dog before turning the firearm on herself and dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators found no evidence that any other person was involved. No additional suspects are being sought, and there is no threat or danger to the Jessup community," said D.A. Brian Gallagher, Lackawanna County District Attorney's Office....

Both Boettcher and Gallagher confirmed that Samantha Bruno had been suffering from addiction and mental health issues for some time.

Gallagher asks the public to be aware of the warning signs and to seek help as soon as possible. "We have to be more willing to speak openly about addiction and mental illness and crises occurring inside our own homes. Asking for help is not a weakness. Reaching out is not betraying a loved one. Early intervention will, can protect that person, can protect that family, and prevent an incident such as this."

1/14/26 WRAL:

A legislative committee plans to comb through the details of a Raleigh murder case as part of its review of the state’s procedures for treating people with mental health problems. 

Legislators last week asked the House Select Committee on Involuntary Commitment and Public Safety to look into how judicial officials handled Ryan Camacho, who is charged with murder in the Jan. 3 death of Ravenscroft teacher Zoe Welsh at her Raleigh home. 

Camacho has a documented history of mental illness. When he faced breaking-and-entering charges in a separate incident last year, prosecutors asked during that hearing to have Camacho committed to a mental hospital — a request that was denied by Wake County Judge Louis Meyer. 

“How could a person who was found to not be competent to proceed to trial … be released not involuntarily committed, even at the request of the district attorney?” Republican state Reps. Erin Paré and Mike Schietzelt of Wake County wrote in a letter to committee members. 

1/15/26 WRAL:

Four felony charges from April 2025 reduced to single misdemeanor

Public records reveal Camacho avoided a multi-year prison sentence in 2025 due to a plea agreement that reduced four felony charges to a single misdemeanor.

A conviction for any one of the four Class H felony charges he faced would have resulted in a sentence between eight and 10 months. Had Camacho been convicted of all four charges, he would have faced a prison sentence between three and four years.

A felony conviction could have seen Camacho behind bars on Jan. 3. Instead, he is suspected of killing Welsh.

In July 2025, Camacho pleaded guilty to a Class I misdemeanor charge of breaking and entering and was sentenced to a maximum of 120 days. The Durham County Sheriff’s Office said Camacho was behind bars from July 6, 2025, until Aug. 4, 2025. 

We have made great progress reducing violent crime, especially murder, these last few years. How much more can we make by treating mental illness early on?

1/22/26 Orlando channel 13:

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The suspect in an Osceola County triple murder, 29-year-old Ahmad Jihad Bojeh, is behind held without bond and is accused of killing three people visiting from out of town over the weekend. Currently, he’s facing three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm.

Data from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office reveals the agency received 41 calls for service to Bojeh’s home from 2006 to 2022. Sixteen of those calls were about “aggressive” behavior, Bojeh not wanting to go to school, and potential drug use directly involving Bojeh.

State Attorney Monique Worrell from the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida is weighing in on a previous case involving Bojeh, where he was acquitted in 2022 of an attempted murder charge from a 2021 case by reason on insanity. As part of that court ruling, Worrell said Bojeh was supposed to receive proper mental health treatment.

“My understanding is that that treatment was originally costing $7 a month and that after a period of time, that $7 a month bill went up to $150+ a month,” Worrell said during a press briefing on Thursday. “That the individual was no longer in compliance with his treatment because of inability to pay for that treatment.”

Worrell said the stop of services for Bojeh was a “failure” in the system, addressing an overall need for improvement in mental health services for people in need.

“The criminal legal system is not adequately equipped to deal with mental illness, nor should it be. That is a role of community partners. That is a role of mental illness hospitals, but not the Department of Corrections or the state attorney's office,” Worrell said. “However, studies have shown that our jails and our departments of corrections are the largest mental health providers in our communities. That's a problem. It's a problem because when things go wrong, people are looking for someone to blame.”

Worrell said that Bojeh went through the legal system and at the time of the offense, the court found he was “legally insane.” However, she stated that during the time of his sentencing in 2022, it was found that he was not a danger to himself or others.

8/18/26 Fox News. Even when hospitalized, our system often seems to need clown noses:

An accused illegal immigrant murderer who fled the United States last month after being granted a 48-hour pass from a Virginia mental health facility was previously allowed to leave the institution on unsupervised visits, staying at a taxpayer-funded apartment while on leave.

Abdulloi Doniyor Toshpulodzoda left the U.S. on July 6 while on a weekend pass, boarding a one-way flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to his native Tajikistan via Istanbul. The Turkish Airlines ticket was purchased under Toshpulodzoda's name using an American Express card, according to court records.

Despite the murder accusation, Toshpulodzoda was permitted to leave the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute (NVMHI) for up to 48 hours to stay at an Alexandria apartment made available through the Fairfax Permanent Supportive Housing Program, court records state....

In 2019, Toshpulodzoda fatally stabbed Mohammad Hemmatian inside his Vienna, Virginia, home before responding police found him covered in blood.

He was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity of second-degree murder and committed to a state psychiatric facility in 2022. To be found legally insane, a defense expert, and then a separate, independent expert for the prosecution evaluated the defendant, Laura Birnbaum, chief of staff for Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano, told Fox News Digital. 

There are more tragedies like this than I have time to summarize.

 

Chant With Me: "What Do We Want? Common Sense Knife Control! When Do We Want It? Now!"

7/26/26 Daily Mail:

A beloved California art gallery manager who was writing an illustrated children's book has been stabbed to death in broad daylight. 

Rachell Summers, 73, was stabbed 11 times outside Capitola Mall in Santa Cruz County on Monday in what investigators have called a random act of violence.

Tyler Leibelt, 19, has been charged with murder while lying in wait and using a deadly weapon, court records show. He has not entered a plea. ...

Leibelt ran up to Summers outside the mall and stabbed her from behind, the court document said.

Summers was 'stabbed multiple times in her back, defensive stab wounds to her forearms, and stab wounds to her center chest, more than 11 total,' prosecutors alleged in the filing.

The 19-year-old ran into the mall, leaving a trail of the grandmother's blood behind him. Prosecutors say he also discarded a knife....

Leibelt told police that 'he purchased two knives so that he could hold one in each hand as he was killing someone,' the court filing says. 

He gestured stabbing with both of his hands during the interview with investigators.

Investigators have found nothing to suggest that Leibelt knew Summers before he targeted her in the deadly attack. It is also unclear why he chose her as his victim.

Leibelt told police that he had been suffering from 'homicidal fantasies for awhile' and claimed he had 'previously disclosed these fantasies but he 'kept getting let out' of custody,' according to the filing.

Prosecutors noted that a gun violence restraining order was issued against the alleged killer in November last year. 

He allegedly told sheriff's deputies during that incident that he 'expressed a desire to cause a mass casualty event,' the court document said.

He also allegedly 'wrote a goodbye letter expressing a desire to kill as many people as possible.' [emphasis added]

Gun violence restraining orders make us so safe--from gun violence. Those other methods for murdering people are so much nicer. 

Released from custody. Police should have requested an involuntary commitment order until California Welfare and Institutions Code sec. 5250.

Red Flag Law Failure

5/21/26 New York Times:

More than a year before Caleb Vazquez and a friend attacked a mosque in San Diego and killed three people, the police were so alarmed by Mr. Vazquez’s behavior that they secured a court order to confiscate his father’s guns.

“Child was involved in suspicious behavior idolizing nazis and mass shooters,” a police officer wrote in a January 2025 protective order.

Mr. Vazquez, who was found dead on Monday shortly after the police say he and a friend attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, had at some point been placed in an involuntary psychiatric hold, according to documents filed at San Diego Superior Court.

He must have been pretty dangerous to get an involuntary psychiatric hold. Before red flag laws, people that were thought to be dangerous to self or others would be subject to psychiatric observation. Taking away guns was not the goal. It was making them nit dangerous with all weapons: guns, gasoline, cars, knives, baseball bats. But red flag laws are gun-specific because they are not about public safety but gun confiscation.

5/21/26 New York Post:

One of the deranged teens behind the San Diego mosque shooting walked away from a mental health facility the day before carrying out Monday’s deadly attack, sources said.

Caleb Vazquez, 18, left the Park Mental Health Treatment Center the morning before killing three people at an Islamic center with 17-year-old Cain Clark, law enforcement sources told The Post.

What does "walked away" mean? He was apparently on a temporary psychiatric hold which could mean Welfare & Institutions section 5150 (72 hours for observation)  or 5250 ("not more than 14 days of intensive treatment related to the mental health disorder or impairment by chronic alcoholism"). Neither of those something from which you "walk away." Both are part of the deeper problem of deinstitutionalization. As the psychiatrist who treated my brother during his first 5250 stay put it: "Anyone who still appears dangerous to a judge after 14 days of Thorazine, is pretty scary."

If You Want to See How Dangerous Unlimited Democrscy Could Be...

Go to X and follow threads about the Charlotte murder.  So many people who do not understand mental illness.  So many people So many full of rage seeking cruel deaths for insane murderers.  A few people asking questions and actually knowing something aboutvit.

The Murder in Charlotte

It's an X post by a WSOC reporter but what the alleged killer's mother says is the story of thousands of murders every year.

"Today we heard from Decarlos Brown's mom. She spoke to @Hunt_Saenz. She is not making excuses for her son....

"When Brown was released from prison, Brown's mom says "he started saying weird things." 

"She says she got Brown evaluated but his behavior became aggressive so she got an involuntary commitment order from the courts. He was placed under psychiatric monitoring for two weeks and diagnosed with schizophrenia. But after he was released she says Brown became so aggressive she had to kick him out. He became homeless. 

"In January, Brown was arrested for misusing the 911 system. Police say he called from the hospital and claimed someone gave him "man made material" that controlled when he "ate, walked and talked." Despite his criminal past and homelessness, Magistrate Teresa Stokes allowed him to be released from jail on a written promise to appear. In court last month on this charge, his public defender questioned Brown's mental capacity."

Mental illness and refusal to hold people who are severely and obviously crazy combined with a criminal justice system that is not even trying anymore makes tragedies like this inevitable.

As another Xer points out:

"Here’s a list of all the news networks who have NOT covered the Charlotte NC story:  

- NYTimes 

- CNN 

- Washington Post 

- MSNBC 

- NPR 

- USA Today 

- Reuters 

- Axios 

- ABC News

- PBS

Every single one of them wrote stories on Daniel Penny... "

Progressives believe black lives matter.  White lives not so much.   If there was no video, it might explain the lack of interest.  In addition, progressives seem not to care about homeless mentally ill people unless they can use them to attack GOP.

9/8/25 Daily Mail chronicles alleged murderer's criminal history. 

For the Want of a Nail... the Daniel Penny Trial

When I was yoing, my father would recite this to me:

"For the want of a nail, a shoe was lost.

For the want of a shoe, a horse was lost 

For want of a horse a rider was lost.
For want of a rider a battle was lost.

For the want of a battle, a war was lost.

For the want of a war, a kingdom was lost...

And all for the want of a nail."

Yes, reductionist to a level that even an Ivy League professor would excoriate, but

Daniel Penny should never been tried because Neely should never have died because Neely should have received the mental treatment he needed instead of scaring a subway car full of people.

There are other steps in the possible sequence. If New York let its people carry tear gas for self-defense, one mentally ill passenger would not be so scary.

Better 30 Years Too Late Than Not At All

 Lawmakers in Ore., Calif. attempt to expand involuntary commitment : NPR

How Many Times Do I Have to See Stories Like This?

2/7/23 KSN-TV:

"Jones, who entered the Omaha Target with an AR-15-style rifle and began firing before he was killed by police had been repeatedly sent to psychiatric hospitals because of his schizophrenia. But because Jones was never formally committed, he was able to keep purchasing guns legally, underscoring how little so-called red-flag laws do to keep firearms away from deeply troubled people."

His parents thought his hospitalization would get him on the firearms disqualifier list.  It did not.  The whole story is one of hallucinations, a mother with schizophrenia, suicide threats, and a system that refuses to treat severe mental illness seriously. 

The Error Appears Very Early in the Decision

The public policy error, I mean.  Hoodbhoy v. D.C. (D.C.App. 2022):

Hilman Jordan shot and killed Jawaid Bhutto in the parking lot of the condominium building where they both lived. At the time of the attack, Jordan was on conditional release from Saint Elizabeths Hospital, where he had been committed two decades earlier following his acquittal, by reason of insanity, on a first-degree murder charge. Jordan’s release from Saint Elizabeths was granted via a Superior Court order requiring that both Jordan and the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health (“DBH”) comply with certain conditions, intended to ensure Jordan would “not pose a danger to himself or others” while living in the community. In the months preceding the shooting, DBH failed to perform several of the duties required by the court order. Most significantly, after Jordan tested positive on multiple drug tests, DBH failed to return him to Saint Elizabeths or even inform the Superior Court of those results. 

Yes.  Not guilty by reason of insanity?  Release him.  Do not bother to keep track of his misbehavior. And somehow even though subject to a firearms disqualifier in what is still a pretty antigun juridiction, he got a gun.

And of course, the widow's suit:

However, when a plaintiff alleges the “District negligently failed to protect [them] from harm,” the first element of a negligence claim—duty—is governed by the public duty doctrine, under which the “government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.”  

This Sounds a Bit Worse Than Run-of-the-Mill Bipolar Disorder

8/30/22 Los Angeles Times:

"The nurse facing murder charges for allegedly slamming her Mercedes-Benz into traffic this month in Windsor Hills was in the throes of a “frightening” mental health crisis in the days, hours and minutes before the crash, new court records filed by her attorneys show.

"The fiery crash killed five, including a pregnant woman and a baby. The Los Angeles district attorney charged Linton with six counts of murder, including the pregnant woman’s unborn child."

Remember, in California killing an unborn child ID still homicide unless performed by a licensed physician. 

"She ran out of her apartment in May 2018 during a panic attack, and when police approached her, she jumped on a police car and was arrested for disorderly conduct, her attorneys wrote.

"A few days after that arrest, Linton told her family that she believed she was possessed by her dead grandmother."

There was a time when these events would have led to an involuntary commitment not a nursing career.

Creative Thinking

 A year or two ago, the local NPR affiliate arranged a discussion about gun control between myself and a Democratic member of the legislature (yes we have a few, representing the rich sections of Boise).  During that discussion, I mentioned the role that deinstitutionalization played in the rise of mass murders and the increase in homelessness.  Her response was to call it "the independent living" movement.  Be warned that as states become increasingly concerned about the problems of mentally ill people turning cities into homeless encampments, this will be the Democratic response: they are not homeless; they living independently so give the government more money so that can live "independently" on subsidized housing.  

Before deinstitutionalization, many of the Severely Mentally Ill were involuntarily committed to state mental hospitals, where they were guaranteed a bed, not a park bench or steam grate.  They had no need to scavenge food from dumpsters.  Their non-psychiatric medical care was also guaranteed.  Many of the services that are now provided in a haphazard decentralized way (when even provided) were centrally located with the sufferer with both improved cost efficiency and a higher utilization of needed services. 

With Good Behavior He Will Be Out in 400 Years

I am not making fun of this guy or his actions, but of the concept of a sentence of two lives plus 120 years. 8/26/21 KTVB:

" 2018, Kinner, a homeless man with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was staying at a Boise apartment complex when he was asked to leave for bad behavior. He returned the next day and stabbed a 3-year-old to death during a birthday party. He also stabbed eight other people. 

"In March, Kinner pleaded guilty to murder and a dozen other charges, including eight counts of aggravated battery. In June, Fourth District Judge Nancy Baskin sentenced Kinner to two life terms in prison plus another 120 years. "

At its core again is untreated mental illness leading to murder.