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03-02-2005, 12:00 PM
http://www.heralddemocrat.com/articles/200.../iq_1762637.prt (http://www.heralddemocrat.com/articles/2005/03/02/local_news/iq_1762637.prt)
Thomas' condition at time of killings argued
By Jerrie Whiteley
Herald Democrat
The battle going on in Andre Thomas' capital murder trial boils down to a disagreement about his mental health at the time he brutally killed his wife, Laura Boren Thomas, their son, Andre Boren, and her daughter, Leyha Hughes.
Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown and his staff say Thomas knew he was doing something wrong when he kicked in Mrs. Thomas' door and drove a large knife deep into her chest. Thomas also knew it was wrong, Brown says, when he stabbed and mutilated the two children.
Thomas' attorneys, Bobbie Peterson and R.J. Hagood, however, say their client was insane when he committed those horrible acts and had no idea about right or wrong.
Tuesday, that battle came down to a duel of mental health experts as Hagood and Peterson questioned the doctors who have talked with Thomas about the crimes and his mental health. The defense also questioned a couple of local people who tried to have Thomas admitted to a mental health hospital before the killings occurred. One of those people saw Thomas just 24 hours before he killed his family.
Jurors slumped in their chairs and stared with glazed eyes as they heard doctors and attorneys go back and forth over the same ground a number of times.
The state's expert, Dr. David Axelrod, testified that Thomas knew what he was doing when he killed his wife and the children. Axelrod said a drug-induced psychosis caused Thomas to lose touch with reality. He said the drugs at the heart of that psychosis were alcohol, marijuana and dextromethorphan, a substance found in the over-the-counter medication called Coricidin.
Hagood, however, wasn't going to let go that easy. He had a chart and a dozen questions to point out that Thomas' condition matched the classic definition of mental illness more than it did a drug-induced psychosis.
He compared the findings that Axelrod made about Thomas to the qualities displayed by one who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Axelrod had found that Thomas suffered from hallucinations and delusional thinking and Hagood pointed out that schizophrenics also suffer from those things. Surely, Thomas could have been suffering from that disease, Hagood argued.
Axelrod held firm. "If a person has taken a drug that can cause the resulting hallucination, then you are advised not to diagnose (a condition like schizophrenia)," Axelrod said.
But, what about the fact that the delusions and hallucinations didn't go away even after the drugs wore off and Thomas was put on the maximum dose of anti-psychotic drugs allowed, Hagood asked.
Axelrod said sometimes the effects of the drugs take time to ease. Further, he said that Thomas had been abusing alcohol and marijuana for years in massive amounts. He said that sort of abuse could end with a drug-induced psychosis without the powerful drug dextromethorphan.
That made Hagood question the amount of dextromethorphan, referred to in court as DXM, found in Thomas' blood when he was arrested. Medical reports have revealed that Thomas had only "trace" amounts of the drug in his system when his blood was drawn at the hospital on the evening after the killings.
Testimony in the trial has shown that Thomas used the drug three times in the month leading up the killings. One of those times, reportedly, was the Thursday before he killed his family on Saturday.
Axelrod said Thomas said he was having hallucinations before he started using the DXM, but the addition of that drug to the constant mix of marijuana and alcohol would have greatly exaggerated the effect of the hallucinations.
When it was First Assistant Grayson County Attorney Kerye Ashmore's turn to question Axelrod, the prosecutor added another drug to the mix by reminding the doctor, and the jury, about testimony that Thomas had also smoked "wet" marijuana. "Wet" is marijuana soaked in formaldehyde. Axelrod said that addition alone would be enough to send Thomas into a drug-induced psychosis.
After going over the tests that Axelrod used to assess Thomas' condition, Ashmore asked if a person who were mentally ill could still know right from wrong.
Axelrod said he thinks a person could suffer from a mental disorder and still know if his actions were legally or morally wrong. He then agreed when Ashmore asked if Thomas' statement that he thought "what am I doing" after he killed his wife was an indication that Thomas could tell right from wrong.
While Axelrod seemed to make some good points about the connection between Thomas' drug use and his horrible actions, Peterson and Hagood offered the jury another side to the story by calling Dr. Jim Harrison to the stand.
Harrison was court appointed to evaluate Thomas' competency in the days after he pulled out his own right eye. He testified that he thinks the psychosis from which Thomas suffered didn't stem from his drug use. Harrison said Thomas likely suffered from schizoaffective disorder. He said he had to diagnose that disorder rather than schizophrenia because one has to have six months of schizophrenic symptoms before that diagnosis can be made.
"Now, I would diagnosis him with schizophrenia," Harrison said. He said Thomas' pattern of hallucinations, delusional thinking and actions fit that diagnosis best. He said the actions the prosecution points to as proof of Thomas' ability to tell right from wrong are really just symptoms of the disease.
For instance, several people testified that Thomas' outbursts or strange actions in the jail were more exaggerated after he saw mental health professionals. Harrison said that made sense because the mental health workers were the only ones who were confronting Thomas about his delusional thinking. Concentrating on that, Harrison said, made Thomas dwell on what he had done to his family and that made him fight against his assumptions about why he committed those horrible acts.
Harrison said Thomas, like other people suffering from a mental disease, could fall in and out of the delusional state quickly. He could be holding a rational conversation one minute and then be irrational the next. Harrison disagreed with Axelrod's contention that marijuana and alcohol could have caused Thomas' psychosis. Harrison said in the very rare instances that those drugs do cause psychosis, they did so only in people who were already predisposed to psychosis. Harrison said the DXM could have aggravated Thomas' psychosis.
Prosecutors will get their chance to question Harrison on his conclusions Wednesday. While the two doctors took up a great deal of the day Tuesday, they weren't the only witnesses who discussed Thomas' mental health.
A nurse from Texoma Medical Center testified about seeing Thomas the day before he killed his family.
Shirley Whitley said the Thomas case changed the way TMC treats patients who present with mental health issues. She said Thomas came into the ER around 7 a.m., and at first, refused to tell her what was wrong with him. She said he even walked out once before eventually telling her that he "just needed help."
She said she eventually found out that Thomas had stabbed himself the night before. She called for a consult from the hospital's behavioral health counselor. That person examined Thomas and then started working on paperwork to get him admitted to a local mental health hospital.
Whitley said she left Thomas in the hands of another nurse once he was examined in the ER, but she did look in on him from time to time. He refused food or drink until after the counselor had told him that he was going to be admitted to a hospital. Whitley said Thomas was left alone while he waited for paperwork to be completed. The nurse in charge of Thomas was preoccupied with a patient who was in critical condition.
Whitley said she was surprised to hear that Thomas left the hospital without getting the help that he had sought. She said the hospital staff called Denison police and told them Thomas had left before the paperwork to commit him could be completed, but Denison police didn't find him.
"This case changed everything about the way our ER handles anything (like this). At that time, we didn't have anyone sit right with them. We do now."
Former Mental Health and Mental Retardation Counselor Jennifer Loyless testified that she had prepared paperwork to have Thomas admitted to a local hospital weeks before he walked into TMC, but he never reported to that hospital. Loyless said Thomas said he would throw himself in front of a bus if he didn't get help quickly, so she decided that he needed to be admitted to a local hospital.
She said ethically, the staff at MHMR has to "use loose restrictive means" if the person who is seeking help says they will provide their own transportation to the hospital. Thomas had a friend with him who said he would drive Thomas to the hospital. When Loyless called the hospital later that day to confirm that Thomas had been sent by MHMR, she learned that he had never arrived.
She said she took paperwork to the local justice of the peace to have Thomas committed and walked the emergency detention order to the Sherman Police Department. She learned a few days later that Sherman police were not able to locate Thomas and he never got the help she had tried to provide.
The defense contends the fact that so many people thought Thomas suffered from a mental illness in the days and weeks before the crime proves that he was suffering from one when he killed his wife, and her children.
See the Herald Democrat's online edition for updates during the day.
Thomas' condition at time of killings argued
By Jerrie Whiteley
Herald Democrat
The battle going on in Andre Thomas' capital murder trial boils down to a disagreement about his mental health at the time he brutally killed his wife, Laura Boren Thomas, their son, Andre Boren, and her daughter, Leyha Hughes.
Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown and his staff say Thomas knew he was doing something wrong when he kicked in Mrs. Thomas' door and drove a large knife deep into her chest. Thomas also knew it was wrong, Brown says, when he stabbed and mutilated the two children.
Thomas' attorneys, Bobbie Peterson and R.J. Hagood, however, say their client was insane when he committed those horrible acts and had no idea about right or wrong.
Tuesday, that battle came down to a duel of mental health experts as Hagood and Peterson questioned the doctors who have talked with Thomas about the crimes and his mental health. The defense also questioned a couple of local people who tried to have Thomas admitted to a mental health hospital before the killings occurred. One of those people saw Thomas just 24 hours before he killed his family.
Jurors slumped in their chairs and stared with glazed eyes as they heard doctors and attorneys go back and forth over the same ground a number of times.
The state's expert, Dr. David Axelrod, testified that Thomas knew what he was doing when he killed his wife and the children. Axelrod said a drug-induced psychosis caused Thomas to lose touch with reality. He said the drugs at the heart of that psychosis were alcohol, marijuana and dextromethorphan, a substance found in the over-the-counter medication called Coricidin.
Hagood, however, wasn't going to let go that easy. He had a chart and a dozen questions to point out that Thomas' condition matched the classic definition of mental illness more than it did a drug-induced psychosis.
He compared the findings that Axelrod made about Thomas to the qualities displayed by one who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Axelrod had found that Thomas suffered from hallucinations and delusional thinking and Hagood pointed out that schizophrenics also suffer from those things. Surely, Thomas could have been suffering from that disease, Hagood argued.
Axelrod held firm. "If a person has taken a drug that can cause the resulting hallucination, then you are advised not to diagnose (a condition like schizophrenia)," Axelrod said.
But, what about the fact that the delusions and hallucinations didn't go away even after the drugs wore off and Thomas was put on the maximum dose of anti-psychotic drugs allowed, Hagood asked.
Axelrod said sometimes the effects of the drugs take time to ease. Further, he said that Thomas had been abusing alcohol and marijuana for years in massive amounts. He said that sort of abuse could end with a drug-induced psychosis without the powerful drug dextromethorphan.
That made Hagood question the amount of dextromethorphan, referred to in court as DXM, found in Thomas' blood when he was arrested. Medical reports have revealed that Thomas had only "trace" amounts of the drug in his system when his blood was drawn at the hospital on the evening after the killings.
Testimony in the trial has shown that Thomas used the drug three times in the month leading up the killings. One of those times, reportedly, was the Thursday before he killed his family on Saturday.
Axelrod said Thomas said he was having hallucinations before he started using the DXM, but the addition of that drug to the constant mix of marijuana and alcohol would have greatly exaggerated the effect of the hallucinations.
When it was First Assistant Grayson County Attorney Kerye Ashmore's turn to question Axelrod, the prosecutor added another drug to the mix by reminding the doctor, and the jury, about testimony that Thomas had also smoked "wet" marijuana. "Wet" is marijuana soaked in formaldehyde. Axelrod said that addition alone would be enough to send Thomas into a drug-induced psychosis.
After going over the tests that Axelrod used to assess Thomas' condition, Ashmore asked if a person who were mentally ill could still know right from wrong.
Axelrod said he thinks a person could suffer from a mental disorder and still know if his actions were legally or morally wrong. He then agreed when Ashmore asked if Thomas' statement that he thought "what am I doing" after he killed his wife was an indication that Thomas could tell right from wrong.
While Axelrod seemed to make some good points about the connection between Thomas' drug use and his horrible actions, Peterson and Hagood offered the jury another side to the story by calling Dr. Jim Harrison to the stand.
Harrison was court appointed to evaluate Thomas' competency in the days after he pulled out his own right eye. He testified that he thinks the psychosis from which Thomas suffered didn't stem from his drug use. Harrison said Thomas likely suffered from schizoaffective disorder. He said he had to diagnose that disorder rather than schizophrenia because one has to have six months of schizophrenic symptoms before that diagnosis can be made.
"Now, I would diagnosis him with schizophrenia," Harrison said. He said Thomas' pattern of hallucinations, delusional thinking and actions fit that diagnosis best. He said the actions the prosecution points to as proof of Thomas' ability to tell right from wrong are really just symptoms of the disease.
For instance, several people testified that Thomas' outbursts or strange actions in the jail were more exaggerated after he saw mental health professionals. Harrison said that made sense because the mental health workers were the only ones who were confronting Thomas about his delusional thinking. Concentrating on that, Harrison said, made Thomas dwell on what he had done to his family and that made him fight against his assumptions about why he committed those horrible acts.
Harrison said Thomas, like other people suffering from a mental disease, could fall in and out of the delusional state quickly. He could be holding a rational conversation one minute and then be irrational the next. Harrison disagreed with Axelrod's contention that marijuana and alcohol could have caused Thomas' psychosis. Harrison said in the very rare instances that those drugs do cause psychosis, they did so only in people who were already predisposed to psychosis. Harrison said the DXM could have aggravated Thomas' psychosis.
Prosecutors will get their chance to question Harrison on his conclusions Wednesday. While the two doctors took up a great deal of the day Tuesday, they weren't the only witnesses who discussed Thomas' mental health.
A nurse from Texoma Medical Center testified about seeing Thomas the day before he killed his family.
Shirley Whitley said the Thomas case changed the way TMC treats patients who present with mental health issues. She said Thomas came into the ER around 7 a.m., and at first, refused to tell her what was wrong with him. She said he even walked out once before eventually telling her that he "just needed help."
She said she eventually found out that Thomas had stabbed himself the night before. She called for a consult from the hospital's behavioral health counselor. That person examined Thomas and then started working on paperwork to get him admitted to a local mental health hospital.
Whitley said she left Thomas in the hands of another nurse once he was examined in the ER, but she did look in on him from time to time. He refused food or drink until after the counselor had told him that he was going to be admitted to a hospital. Whitley said Thomas was left alone while he waited for paperwork to be completed. The nurse in charge of Thomas was preoccupied with a patient who was in critical condition.
Whitley said she was surprised to hear that Thomas left the hospital without getting the help that he had sought. She said the hospital staff called Denison police and told them Thomas had left before the paperwork to commit him could be completed, but Denison police didn't find him.
"This case changed everything about the way our ER handles anything (like this). At that time, we didn't have anyone sit right with them. We do now."
Former Mental Health and Mental Retardation Counselor Jennifer Loyless testified that she had prepared paperwork to have Thomas admitted to a local hospital weeks before he walked into TMC, but he never reported to that hospital. Loyless said Thomas said he would throw himself in front of a bus if he didn't get help quickly, so she decided that he needed to be admitted to a local hospital.
She said ethically, the staff at MHMR has to "use loose restrictive means" if the person who is seeking help says they will provide their own transportation to the hospital. Thomas had a friend with him who said he would drive Thomas to the hospital. When Loyless called the hospital later that day to confirm that Thomas had been sent by MHMR, she learned that he had never arrived.
She said she took paperwork to the local justice of the peace to have Thomas committed and walked the emergency detention order to the Sherman Police Department. She learned a few days later that Sherman police were not able to locate Thomas and he never got the help she had tried to provide.
The defense contends the fact that so many people thought Thomas suffered from a mental illness in the days and weeks before the crime proves that he was suffering from one when he killed his wife, and her children.
See the Herald Democrat's online edition for updates during the day.