KERRVILLE, Texas — The judge ascended the bench. He looked down at cafeteria-style tables marked “Prosecuting Attorney” and “Defense Attorney.” To his left, two men sat in a box marked “Jury.” The witness stand was marked “Witness.”

“Sustained,” proclaimed the judge, who wore a striped polo shirt, a thick goatee and a shock of greasy hair. He gave the gavel a sharp bang and waved it around, bringing the court to something resembling order, at least by the standards of a mock trial involving people who have been deemed mentally incompetent to participate in a real one.

In mental hospitals across the country, psychiatrists prepare criminal defendants for trial using innovative therapies such as this make-believe hearing, where patients and clinicians played the key courtroom roles. The process, they believe, reduces recidivism and protects public safety.

“Good treatment is your best security,” said Michael Jumes, director of psychology services at the Kerrville State Hospital, where all 202 beds are filled with patients committed by the courts. “Medication alone can’t do it.”

But lawmakers in a number of states are scrambling to cut the cost of preparing mentally ill criminal defendants for trial. Dozens have authorized outpatient programs. Several, including Texas, are considering plans to provide treatment in jail.

A jail-based program allows defendants “to quickly receive treatment in a county jail from a team of highly qualified mental health professionals without waiting several weeks to be transported,” said state Sen. Robert Duncan, a Lubbock Republican whose proposal for a pilot program has cleared the state Senate.

Courts order mental competency evaluations for about 60,000 criminal defendants a year, according to statistics cited by the National Judicial College, a nonprofit education group housed at the University of Nevada, Reno. About 20 percent are found unfit to stand trial.

The rules for restoring competency, as prescribed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1960, require defendants to be able to consult with their lawyers “with a reasonable degree of rational understanding” and to comprehend the proceedings against them.

“The threshold for being competent to stand trial, the way most jurisdictions view it, is not very high,” said William H. Fisher, a criminology professor at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. By prescribing anti-psychotic medications, he added, some psychiatrists simply engage in “buffing people up.”

Faced with long hospital waiting lists for such treatment, more than 30 states have authorized outpatient programs designed to expedite the process and save money, according to a report by Reena Kapoor, a psychiatry expert at Yale University of Medicine.

In Texas, according to a government budget analysis, state hospitals achieve a 75 percent success rate, at a cost of $421 for an average stay of 120 days. Outpatient treatment, at a reduced cost of $106 per day, has produced a success rate of 55 percent Charges were dropped against another 11 percent.

Now some lawmakers are looking to San Bernardino County, Calif., where officials have been operating a 20-bed pilot program known as “jail-based competency restoration.” While the program has reported only a 45 percent success rate, with 19 of 42 patients restored to competency, California state budget analysts noted $70,000 in cost savings per patient as a success.

In Texas, the state Legislature has advanced bills to create a similar program. In Colorado, the Department of Human Services has sought funding for its own jail-based treatment.

Advocates for the mentally ill have spoken out against the proposals.

“Jail is not a therapeutic environment,” said Katharine Ligon, a health care analyst at the nonprofit Center for Public Policy Priorities, testifying against the pilot program proposal. Jails, she argued, lack the training, resources and will to provide proper care.

Even patients who have been treated in hospitals often regress when they return to jail to await a court hearing, experts say.

“The downside to treating them in jail,” said Christopher Slobogin, a professor of psychiatry and director of the criminal justice program at Vanderbilt University, “is that it’s a jail.”

Here at the Kerrville State Hospital, where the typical patient is a man in his forties who has been arrested on violent felony charges, “helping people gain the competency to stand trial and recover from their mental illness is a tall order,” Dr. Jumes said. “And we try to strike that balance.”

As the mock trial began, participants followed the script of a case involving a man who impersonated a police officer to steal a car. Dr. Janet Mueller, a psychologist who led the trial, said she was careful to avoid using scenarios resembling the participants’ actual crimes, partly to protect their privacy and partly to avoid upsetting them.

As he listened to testimony, the patient playing the judge rocked in his seat, stared at the ceiling, pulled at his hair and briefly rested his head on the desk. At one point, he asked whether the district attorney needed to be sworn in.

In the end, the two-man jury delivered a split verdict. The judge asked to be reminded of the charges. Then he spoke up.

“Well, I got something,” the judge said. “If he’s so not guilty, why don’t they take his fingerprints?”

___

Follow Michael Brick on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/BrickMichael

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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Police are searching for Matthew Royer, 21, who was last seen on Thursday, May 16. He told his mom that he overslept and was getting a late start on his trip at about 6 p.m., ABC News reports.

A charge on his credit card placed him at a gas station in Rhode Island at 6:30 p.m., and a ping off a cellphone tower showed that he was at an Allentown, Pa. gas station at 2 a.m. Surveillance footage from the gas station shows him making a purchase, CBS Philadelphia reports.

“He bought water at the station, he opened it in the car and headed southbound on 100 – he looked fine, not distraught,” his mother, Janet Royer, told ABC.

He was only 35 miles from his home in Skippack Township, but that’s where the trail goes dark.

His mom called police on Friday afternoon after Royer failed to show up for work at the Skippack Golf Course. A check of his cell phone records shows that his phone stopped working at noon on Saturday, according to the Lehigh Valley Express-Times.

Royer is described as a white male, 6-foot-1, 160 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. He was last seen wearing a green golf shirt, off-white shorts, flip-flops and a Biltmore Adventures hat. He was driving a silver 2008 Chevy Cobalt with Pennsylvania license GZR-9059.

Pennsylvania State Police in Skippack ask anyone with information to call 610-584-1250.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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Jodi Arias, the woman convicted of the frenzied murder of an ex-lover in Arizona, was due back in court Monday as jurors consider whether she should be executed for the crime.

Arias, 32, was found guilty on May 8 of the first-degree murder of Travis Alexander in 2008.

She admitted to killing her former boyfriend after a day of sex. She shot him in the face, stabbed him more than 20 times, and slit his throat from ear to ear. But at trial she claimed it was in self-defense.

But jurors said Arias had been “especially cruel” in the killing — a finding that made her eligible for the death penalty under Arizona law.

The same jury is now considering what sentence to impose, taking into account factors such as Arias’ lack of a prior criminal record and assertions that she was a good friend, had an abusive childhood and is a talented artist, according to an Associated Press report.

Arias herself is expected to testify in defense of her own life, according to defense attorney Kirk Nurmi who told jurors at the start of the sentencing process last week: “When you understand who Ms. Arias is, you will understand that life is the appropriate sentence.”

Arias was briefly placed on suicide watch following her conviction, after saying in an interview with KSAZ-TV of Phoenix that she would “rather get death than life” and that death was the “ultimate freedom.”

Maricopa County sheriff’s officials said Monday that Arias had been transferred back to the inmate population at the county’s Estrella Jail for women after having been observed on suicide watch for five days in a psychiatric ward, The Arizona Republic reported.

The Arias case has been the most watched murder trial this year, as 17 weeks focused around the soft-spoken defendant told of kinky sex and horrific violence.

Led by Juan Martinez, the prosecution argued that Alexander’s murder was premeditated. On June 4, 2008, Arias drove from Yreka, Calif., to Mesa, Ariz., where she showed up at Alexander’s home.  She’d rented a car, dyed her hair, turned off her cell phone—apparently to make her harder to identify, her movements harder to track. Her mission, prosecutors said, was murder.

Arias and Alexander had broken up after a steamy but secretive affair. Arias testified that she began acting out Alexander’s every pornographic fantasy. The woman even converted to Alexander’s Mormon faith, but he nonetheless broke up with her and began dating — chastely, he told her — other women.

According to the testimony of some of Alexander’s friends, Arias did not take the breakup well, and began stalking her former beau and slashed his tires. Her extreme jealousy culminated in Alexander’s gruesome murder, the prosecutor argued.

NBC News’ Becky Bratu and Alex Johnson contributed to this report.

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PHOENIX — A Phoenix police officer and firefighter both died Sunday after suffering critical injuries in separate accidents on the job, officials said.

Police said Officer Daryl Raetz, 29, was conducting a DUI stop on a vehicle in west Phoenix when another vehicle struck him at about 3:30 a.m. and then fled the scene. Raetz, an Iraq war veteran who became a Phoenix police officer six years ago, was taken to a hospital where he later died.

A day earlier, 23-year-old Phoenix Firefighter Bradley Harper was critically injured while fighting a mulch fire. The Arizona Republic cited Sgt. Tommy Thompson in reporting that Harper was moving equipment at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday when he was pinned between two emergency vehicles. He died Sunday of his injuries.

Mayor Greg Stanton said Sunday would go down in history as a “tragic day” for Phoenix.

“It’s incredibly important that this community show its full support, not only for the families of our deceased heroes so they understand how important the service (was) of these two men dedicated to the safety of the city,” he said, “but it’s also important that the living officers and the living firefighters see the community pull together so that they know that when they go out every day and risk their lives, they do so with the full support of the citizens of this city.”

The hit-and-run collision that killed Raetz happened as he was standing in the roadway and was wrapping up the DUI stop. He is survived by a wife and young daughter.

Authorities said late Sunday afternoon that police in Surprise located the SUV that hit him and are working to identify the driver.

“When our officers are out there, part of the danger we face is just processing the scene,” Thompson said, “particularly in a DUI scene such as this, and then (to) have another individual strike one of our officers who’s out there doing his job.”

Police Chief Daniel V. Garcia described the loss as “gut-wrenching.”

“This is every officer’s nightmare,” he said. “I honestly don’t have the words to describe the sorrow in my heart for Daryl Raetz and his family. He was one of Phoenix’s finest, one of our heroes who was out there every day (serving) the community.”

The police and fire unions planned to organize fundraisers for Raetz’s and Harper’s families, said Joe Clure, representative for the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.

___

Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities were searching for at least two gunmen who walked up to the door of a Northern California home and opened fire, killing a 10-year-old girl and injuring her parents.

“Whoever these gunmen were, they were directly outside the front door,” Sacramento County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Jason Ramos said Sunday. “This was not a drive-by. These gunmen approached the house and shot inside.”

Sacramento County sheriff’s officials suspected that a family member had gang ties.

“You have to be hard pressed to think a 10-year-old girl was the intended target,” Ramos said.

At least a dozen shots were fired from two guns at the house on Saturday night, killing Elvira Campos and injuring her parents, Ramos said. The names of the parents – both of whom were in their 40s and were expected to survive – were not released.

The girl’s 14-year-old brother was playing video games in a back room and was not hurt.

Detectives were canvassing the neighborhood for possible witnesses and forensic units were gathering evidence at the home Sunday, where a cluster of bullet holes marked a front window and more holes were found in the front door and a window frame.

The family had lived in the home in an area about 11 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento for less than a year, Ramos said. There were no records of sheriff’s officials being sent there previously, he said.

“I can’t even imagine what would bring people to do that,” neighbor James Corbett told The Associated Press. Corbett, who lives about three houses down from where the girl was shot, described the neighborhood as quiet, with a “bunch of young families.”

On Sunday morning, about a half dozen grieving relatives arrived at the home, The Sacramento Bee reported.

“We have no idea what happened – she was a very happy little girl,” Tony Reys, the uncle of the girl, told the newspaper.

Sheriff’s officials were also investigating a separate shooting Sunday morning that took place not far from the home. The victim of that shooting – a 32-year-old man who survived – was “definitely a gang member” and detectives were looking at the possibility the shootings were related, Ramos said.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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A 33-year-old Manhattan man who allegedly made anti-gay remarks to a 32-year-old man he’s accused of fatally shooting in Greenwich Village has been charged with murder as a hate crime, police said.

Elliot Morales, who appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court, is also charged with criminal possession of a weapon and menacing, according to the complaint filed Sunday by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Police used facial recognition software to identify Morales as the alleged shooter after he refused to identify himself or be fingerprinted, and was found in possession of a fake ID card, authorities said.

Morales was taken into custody shortly after police allege he shot Marc Carson, of 131st Street, following a confrontation on Eighth Avenue around midnight Friday.

He was ordered held without bail pending another court appearance on Thursday. His attorney, Reginald Sharpe, could not be reached for comment.

Shortly before the shooting, Morales had run into Carson and a friend near a 99 Cent Pizza and allegedly hurled anti-gay slurs at them. Morales had been with two other men at the time, and they allegedly asked if Carson was a “gay wrestler.”

Carson made some remarks in response to the suspect’s taunts and walked away, law enforcement sources said.

When Morales ran into the victim and his friend again later, he was alone. Words were exchanged for a second time, and the the suspect allegedly pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and shot Carson in the head, killing him, police said.

The suspect ran off, but was arrested later by a police officer on foot patrol who recognized him based on a description authorities put out after the shooting. A silver revolver was found in his possession.

Police say Morales has a criminal record, including an arrest for attempted murder in 1998. Detectives are looking to question the two men who were with the suspect during the initial confrontation near the pizza shop.

Police are reviewing surveillance video from the area.

Before the shooting, police say the suspect had a separate confrontation with a manager and bouncer at the West Village restaurant Annisa on Barrow Street. Both men told detectives the suspect made anti-gay comments and threatened them.

State and local officials blasted the slaying Saturday, citing a spike in alleged anti-gay crimes in Manhattan over the last several months.

On May 10, police said a gay couple was attacked on West 32nd Street and beaten so severely that one of the men needed eye surgery. Days earlier, another gay couple was assaulted by a group of men in the same area near Madison Square Garden.

Source: nbcnewyork.com

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Five people were fatally shot in weekend violence that wounded at least 18 others across Chicago, according to police.

The most recent fatality occurred at 2:10 a.m. Sunday in the 300 block of South Cicero where a 53-year-old man was shot in the neck.

The previous night, shots were fired into a group of people in the 6800 block of South Lowe Avenue, striking a 30-year-old woman in the head, police said.

In the same shooting, a 27-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the wrist and a 37-year-old man was shot in the back. Both were taken to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center where their conditions were stabilized, according to the Chicago police news affairs Officer Sullivan.

The weekend’s first fatality took place at 7:24 p.m. Friday in the 7800 block of South Langely Avenue when a 17-year-old man was shot in the chest, according to news affairs officer Jose Estrada.

The man, identified as Clifton Barney, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Barney was reportedly on the street when an offender shot him once in the chest and jumped into a light-colored vehicle, Estrada said. No one was in custody as of Saturday morning.

Less than an hour later, a 40-year-old man was shot in the head in the 200 block of North Mayfield Avenue, police said.

The shooter ran up to the man firing several times before hitting him in the back of the head and fleeing on foot, Estrada said.

The man, Ramar Bonner, was taken to Loyola University Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the medical examiner’s office.

The third fatality of the weekend took place around 3:50 a.m. Saturday in the 4800 block of West Iowa Street where a man was found dead with a gunshot wound.

The 27-year-old man was reportedly involved in a verbal altercation with an unknown offender prior to the shooting, Estrada said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Earlier, a 16-year-old was shot in the leg around 9:58 p.m. Friday in the 5400 block of West Wrightwood Avenue, according to police.

The teen was walking with several others when the group was approached by a male who began firing shots. The teen was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the right leg in stable condition. No others were injured in the shooting.

The shooting occurred around 10 p.m. Friday near the 4800 block of Golf Road in Skokie, where officers discovered a male juvenile shot in the abdomen, according to police.

The victim was taken to an area hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Shortly after, two 18-year-old men were shot around 10:20 p.m. in the 5800 block of South Laflin Street, Estrada said.

The two teens were in separate groups when a verbal altercation erupted and shots were fired, police said. One teen was shot in the left calf and the other was shot in the hip. Both men were taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in stable condition.

Around 10:50 p.m., a 34-year-old man was shot in the back and abdomen during a drive-by shooting in the 120 block of South Perry Avenue, Estrada said.

The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition.

Three others were shot in the Lawndale neighborhood around 11:25 p.m. on the 1200 block of South Kolin Avenue, police said.

The victims were in a group with several others when unknown offenders approached on foot and fired shots from a nearby alley, Estrada said.

A 38-year-old man was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the back. A 38-year-old woman was shot in the arm and taken in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital. The third victim, a 27-year-old woman was shot in the neck and was reported to be in “grave” condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to police.

Police recovered three guns from the alley and discovered the shooters’ emptied vehicle in the 1200 block of South Kostner Avenue.

Around 3:35 a.m. Saturday, a 20-year-old man walked into Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, police said.

The man claimed to be riding in a vehicle when another car pulled up with occupants flashing gang signs and shouting gang slogans before firing at the victim.

No shots were reported in the area, however, and the shooting is still under investigation.

The weekend’s most recent shooting occurred around 3 p.m. Saturday when a 12-year-old boy was shot  in the 2300 block of West 23rd Street, according to a tweet from Chicago Fire Media.

Two boys were reportedly playing with a gun when it accidentally went off.

The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound in his arm in stable condition, according to police news affairs.

A third boy is being charged in the shooting for bringing the gun into the home, police said. Details of the charges were not immediately available.

Source: nbcchicago.com

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Dallas Fire-Rescue says a firefighter is trapped inside a burning condominium complex.

The blaze at the Hearthwood Condominium complex at 12363 Abrams Road had smoke billowing through the roof of the complex when the first fire crews arrived at the scene at 2:52 a.m.

Jason Evans with Dallas Fire-Rescue said firefighters initially started to attack the fire offensively, but after the fire grew too quickly, crews moved to a defensive attack.

Evans told NBC 5′s Kendra Lyn that the missing firefighter used his radio to say he was trapped inside and did not know where he was. Evans says crews have not been able to reach the firefighter by radio since that last message.

Fire crews have had to pull back on fighting the flames of the massive fire while they search for the firefighter.

Evans also said the huge fire is keeping crews from searching the building for any injured or trapped residents inside the building.

Firefighters rescued at least five residents from the building during the process. Two residents were treated for minor smoke inhalation at the scene. Two firefighters were taken to a hospital for minor injuries. Both are expected to be okay.

At least 24 units were destroyed by the fire. The roof of the building collapsed in some area, leaving third floor apartments exposed. Other damaged portions of the building may have collapsed as well.

The three-story complex was built in 1980, according to Condo.com. The complex is close to Interstate 635 and flames are visible from some traffic cameras in the area.

Dallas Fire-Rescue elevated the blaze to a six-alarm fire at 5:20 a.m. Monday, bringing in additional units to help battle the blaze. Over 100 firefighters and more than a dozen fire engines are at the scene.

Residents were evacuated from the complex, including elderly residents who were forced to climb down the ladders of some DFR trucks.

Many of the roads leading to and from the complex have been blocked, so even residents that are not directly impacted by the fire cannot get into or out of the complex.

NBC 5 has crews on the scene to gather more information. As this is a developing story, details may change as we collect more information.

Source: nbcdfw.com

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Two agents with the FBI’s hostage rescue team died in a training accident off Virginia Beach Friday.

Agent Christopher Lorek and Special Agent Stephen Shaw, both part of the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, were on a weeklong training trip in Hampton Roads.

The accident happened on a Military Sealift Command ship the FBI leased from the Navy, reported WAVY-TV, citing a Navy spokesperson. The agents were then airlifted to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where they were pronouced dead.

The cause of death was not specified, and an investigator for the Norfolk Medical Examiner’s Office said that no information would be released until Monday morning. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson also said the cause of the incident is under review.

Navy personnel were not involved in the training exercise.

Lorek, 41,  and Shaw, 40, were based in Quantico, Va.

“We mourn the loss of two brave and courageous men,” FBI Director Robert Mueller said in the statement. “Like all who serve on the Hostage Rescue Team, they accept the highest risk each and every day, when training and on operational missions, to keep our nation safe. Our hearts are with their wives, children, and other loved ones who feel their loss most deeply. And they will always be part of the FBI family.”

Lorek joined the FBI in 1996 and is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 11 and 8. Shaw worked for the FBI for eight years. He is survived by his wife, 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.

The Hostage Rescue Team is part of the Critical Incident Response Group based at Quantico.

CIRG, an elite hostage rescue team, made headlines earlier this year when they successfully rescued a 5-year-old boy who was being held hostage in an underground bunker in Alabama. Agents killed the boy’s captor, Jimmy Lee Dykes, who took the boy from a school bus.

Trained in military tactics and outfitted with combat-style gear and weapons, the group was formed 30 years ago in preparation for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The team is deployed quickly to trouble spots and provides assistance to local FBI offices during hostage situations. It has participated in hostage situations more than 800 times in the U.S. and elsewhere since 1983.

Source: nbcwashington.com

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