saysDoctor cites schizophrenia as reason to halt next week's execution
By ALLAN TURNER, Houston Chronicle
An Arizona psychiatrist Tuesday described railway killer Angel Maturino Resendiz as a violently psychotic man whose diseased brain sent him on a cross-country killing spree, led him to fear wild government conspiracies and now makes him think he will survive execution.
Dr. Lauro Amezcua-Patiño told state District Judge William Harmon that Maturino Resendiz is not competent to be executed for the December 1998 murder of Dr. Claudia Benton because he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Maturino Resendiz, thought to have killed as many as 14 people, is scheduled for execution Tuesday in Huntsville.
Final arguments in the hearing are scheduled for this morning in Harmon's 178th state district court.
Maturino Resendiz, wearing a canary yellow jail jumpsuit and a Fidel Castro beard, stared into space as lawyers sparred over issues that will decide his fate.
Experts disagree on illness Amezcua-Patiño, who was selected by defense lawyers to examine the killer, testified there was no indication that Maturino Resendiz exaggerated the severity of his mental illness to escape death.
The killer has said he is half-man, half-angel and that his murders were ordained by God to smite homosexuals, abortion supporters, Satanists and child abusers.
"Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain in which the brain loses function and brain cells," Amezcua-Patiño testified. Victims can suffer hallucinations, delusions and memory loss and lose the ability to function in society.
"He believes he is Jewish," the doctor testified. "He believes there is a conspiracy involving George Bush and thingy Cheney that is trying to prevent him from doing God's work."
While he recognizes that he has been sentenced to die for killing Benton and that his execution will occur next week, Maturino Resendiz is convinced that he will awaken in three days in a new body to fight "bad Muslims" in Israel, Amezcua-Patiño testified.
Earlier Tuesday, Houston psychiatrist Dr. Mark Moeller testified that Maturino Resendiz may suffer from delusions, but he is not schizophrenic. Therefore, the doctor told Harmon, he is eligible for execution.
Moeller, selected by prosecutors to examine the killer, said he found Maturino Resendiz "goal-oriented and logical ... There was no indication of hallucinations."
Later, outside the courtroom, Moeller called Maturino Resendiz a "shark," and suggested that he had exaggerated his mental illness to escape execution.
Other doctors missed indications of the killer's malingering because they
were too accustomed to trusting their patients, he said.
Disputing written testimony Also appearing Tuesday was Beaumont psychiatrist Dr. Mark Gripon, who testified that Maturino Resendiz is competent.
"He could name the place of his execution, the procedure ... and even tell me the cost," Gripon said, "but he believes he cannot be killed by any means. He believes he can 'jump' to other lives until time is no more."
Prosecutors and defense attorney Jack Zimmermann skirmished Tuesday over whether the written report of a prosecution-selected psychologist, Jerome Brown of Houston, can be admitted for Harmon's consideration.
Brown will be the only witness not to appear in court and, therefore, cannot be cross-examined.
Zimmerman asked Harmon to reject Brown's written testimony. Prosecutor Lyn McClellan said Brown had met his obligation to the court by submitting his report.
Source : Houston Chronicle
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3988190.html
