BY KRISTEN DELGUZZI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Gary Lee Hughbanks Jr. brutally slashed a Springfield Township couple to death in 1987, it was the culmination of years of fantasies about murder.
During the first day of testimony in a sentencing hearing for the 31-year-old killer, two psychiatrists described Mr. Hughbanks as a psychotic, depressed and occasionally violent person who grew up in a home devoid of love and nurture.
Those conditions, the doctors said, contributed to Mr. Hughbanks' descent into the criminal world.
Defense attorneys are presenting the testimony in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to persuade jurors to recommend a life sentence instead of the death penalty for Mr. Hughbanks, who was convicted last week of two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of William and Juanita Leeman.
The mental health problems began when Mr. Hughbanks was a youngster. Dr. Bernard DeSilva, who treated Mr. Hughbanks from his teen years through the mid-1990s, said Tuesday the mental illness likely was in place at birth.
"It is possible that he was . . . genetically almost programmed (for mental illness)," said Dr. DeSilva, who also treated Mr. Hughbanks' father, Gary Sr., for paranoid schizophrenia.
Numerous times since his 14th birthday -- he began seeing Dr. DeSilva that year -- Mr. Hughbanks has attempted suicide. Once he slit his wrists, another time he overdosed on psychotropic medications, and once he hurled himself off a balcony.
"He really wanted to die," Dr. DeSilva said.
One of the suicide attempts came in August 1986, nine months before the Leemans were slain. The attempt also came two months after Mr. Hughbanks spent two weeks in Christ Hospital's mental ward.
He checked into the hospital June 1, 1986, and stayed until June 14. During his stay, Mr. Hughbanks, then 19, complained of agitation, psychotic behavior and voices that were urging suicide, Dr. Sagi Raju said.
Dr. Raju said that during the hospitalization, Mr. Hughbanks expressed feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and homicidal rage.
He fantasized about "killing somebody, hurting somebody, but it was non-specific," Dr. Raju said. "He didn't have any definite thought or plan in mind, but he had the idea."
Testimony is expected to conclude today, after jurors hear from Mr. Hughbanks' mother, sister and another mental health expert. Mr. Hughbanks also will address the jury.
