Saturday, January 30, 1999
Mental state issue in Roselawn stabbings case
Mother says teen was hearing voices
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The first sign of trouble came when the 17-year-old told his mother he was hearing voices.
Everywhere he turned, he told her, he could hear someone on TV or the radio or even in his own house ordering him to “go be a murderer.”
In court testimony Friday, police detectives said the teen-ager apparently tried to follow those orders.
The teen-ager was in Hamilton County Juvenile Court for a hearing that will determine whether he should face attempted murder charges in adult court.
He is accused of stabbing three women in separate attacks in Rose lawn last month. All three victims survived, although a 72-year-old woman was critically injured.
The assaults, which occurred Dec. 18 and 19, prompted a massive police manhunt in the Roselawn area.
At the hearing Friday, the teen-ager's mother and several police officers testified that he had complained of mental problems about the time of the stabbings.
“He came downstairs and he said, "Mommy, I have these thoughts going around in my head,'” said his mother. “He said, "Everybody's telling me to be a murderer. You are, the TV is, the radio is.'”
She said she immediately called a 24-hour hotline for psychiatric care and arranged for her son to meet with a counselor.
Judge Sylvia Hendon did not allow the mother to testify about that meet ing because she wanted to consider whether it would be covered by doctor-patient privilege, making it inadmissible.
The judge did, however, allow police detectives to testify about conversations the mother had with them about the meeting.
Detective Bill Couch said the mother told police her son implicated himself in the stabbings. He said the teen-ager demonstrated for his mother how he stabbed one of the women.
Defense attorney Kenneth Lawson noted that no blood was found on the teen-ager's coat and no one could conclusively link him to the knife. He also said one victim described her assailant as white, when the defendant is black.
Prosecutors said the teen-ager knew details about the crime that only the assailant could know.
Judge Hendon will resume the hearing Feb. 17 and may decide then whether to send the teen to adult court. Court-appointed psychiatrists may then be asked to determine whether the teen-ager is mentally competent to stand trial.
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