Sanity hearing this week for murder suspect
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Company
news wire:
Lewis Trial Underway
November 30, 1999
ABC
(BAY MINETTE) -- The capital murder trial of Gerald Lewis is underway in
Baldwin County Circuit Court. Lewis is accused of murdering Chickasaw
resident
Misty McGugin and Kathleen Bracken of Mobile in 1998. Lewis is also
wanted in
Georgia on two murder indictments. His attorneys claim that he is not
competent
to stand trial and that he does not understand that he is on trial for
murder.
---------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 11/28/99 online edition of The
Mobile
Register newspaper:
Sanity hearing this week for murder suspect
By MARTHA SIMMONS
Staff Reporter
11/28/99
BAY MINETTE - In court proceedings starting Monday, Baldwin Circuit
jurors will
decide whether professed serial killer Gerald Patrick Lewis is sane. If
so, a
second jury will be impaneled for his capital murder trial.
Lewis, 34, of Daphne, is charged with two 1998 slayings at area motels -
including that of Misty McGugin of Chickasaw - as well as two cases of
attempted murder, attempted rape and attempted abduction. He also is
charged
with two other killings in Georgia.
Attorneys for the defense and the prosecution will begin Monday
selecting two
juries - one for the competency trial and another for the separate
murder trial
- with Circuit Judge Lyn Stuart presiding over both.
If Lewis is found competent, the capital murder trial will begin
immediately
thereafter on the charge of killing Ms. McGugin, 22, whose car was found
abandoned at Drifter's, a bar on the Causeway in Baldwin County, in
early 1998.
Lewis was first arrested in Mobile County in connection with the April
12,
1998, stabbing death of Kathleen Bracken, 32, of Swampscott, Mass., at
the
Twilite Motel on Government Boulevard.
Following Lewis' arrest in connection with the killing of Ms. Bracken,
police
said he led investigators to the Daphne location where he had left Ms.
McGugin's body.
In a 1998 interview with a Mobile Register reporter, Lewis confessed to
two
other killings in Georgia and one in Massachusetts. He since has been
charged
with killing two women in the Atlanta area, one of whom was about seven
months'
pregnant and both of whom were believed to be prostitutes, court records
indicate.
Court records do not indicate whether Lewis faces similar charges in
Massachusetts.
Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Jo Beth Murphree said last
month that
the Baldwin County case is being tried first because those charges
against
Lewis include capital murder, while Mobile County's doesn't. The maximum
sentence for capital murder is death in the electric chair.
Following the Baldwin trial, Lewis next would be set to face the murder
charge
in Mobile County, she said, then he may be extradited to face the two
Georgia
charges.
Lewis' killing spree, as he described it to the Mobile Register, lasted
more
than a decade before ending April 14 of last year, three days after Ms.
Bracken
was found stabbed to death in the hotel room.
Police then tracked Lewis to his mother's home in the Lake Forest
subdivision
of Daphne.
During questioning, detectives said, Lewis gave "explicit" information
about
killing Ms. Bracken, Ms. McGugin, and the two women in Georgia.
Lewis also told investigators that he tried to abduct a teen-age girl
from the
parking lot of the Wal-Mart Supercenter off U.S. 98 in Daphne in April
1998.
The story matched an account that the girl had given to police.
The girl said that as she approached her car, she saw movement in it and
ran
back into the store, where an employee called Daphne police. Lewis fled
before
police arrived.
Lewis also is charged in connection with causing an automobile accident
the
previous March in an attempt to abduct the young woman driving the
vehicle,
court records indicate. Court records do not say where that incident
occurred,
but contend that his plans were aborted when a neighbor came out to
investigate
the accident.
Both incidents led to the charges of attempted murder, attempted rape
and
attempted abduction for which Lewis also is to be tried.
Although it's more common for judges to decide mental competency, Lewis'
attorneys requested that a jury determine his competency to stand trial
for
murder and other charges, said Assistant District Attorney Carmen Bosch.
"It's an option available under Alabama law in any felony case," she
said.
To ensure plenty of jurors, 300 Baldwin County voters received jury-duty
notices for the specially set court session. Half were excused from
duty, court
officials said, leaving a list of 150 names from which attorneys may
select for
both trials.
Court officials expect a parade of psychiatrists to offer their opinions
about
whether Lewis is sane and able to stand trial for murder, or insane,
requiring
institutionalization in a secured mental health facility rather than
jail.
Weighing in on the prosecution's side is the opinion offered late last
year in
a state mental evaluation, which determined that Lewis is a threat to
the
public and likely has a personality disorder, but is competent to stand
trial.
Furthermore, Lewis may be faking mental illness as a way of avoiding
severe
punishment should he be convicted, according to the papers filed Dec.
28, 1998,
in Baldwin Circuit Court.
"It was generally my clinical impression that Mr. Lewis engaged in a
number of
statements and behaviors designed to feign psychiatric disturbance,"
wrote
forensic examiner Vonceil Smith, who interviewed Lewis at the Taylor
Hardin
Secure Medical Facility in Tuscaloosa.
Lewis' defense attorneys - J. Russell Pigott of Foley, and Harold Koons
III of
Bay Minette - could not be reached for comment last week, but they
argued in
pretrial hearings that Lewis is mentally ill, unaware of his
surroundings and
unable to make value judgments about his actions.
Court files indicate that Lewis has reported hearing voices, including
that of
a former girlfriend, Lena Santarpio, who is the mother of his child and
with
whom he seems obsessed. Lewis detailed their relationship in an
interview with
the Mobile Register last year.
Moreover, Lewis had been institutionalized previously and has spent much
of his
adult life in jail, court records indicate. At age 17, Lewis was jailed
in
Massachusetts for an assortment of assault and attempted murder
convictions,
according to court records, and after attempting suicide served the rest
of his
sentence in Bridgewater (Mass.) State Hospital.
According to court records Lewis entered a Georgia state prison in 1994
for
eight offenses, ranging from auto theft to drunken driving. When he was
released in 1997, he came to live with his mother, Linda Lewis of
Daphne, and
went to work as a mechanic for an Eastern Shore auto dealership.
Lewis now is being held in the Baldwin County Corrections Center in Bay
Minette, a facility with which he apparently is unhappy. In a
handwritten
letter to Judge Stuart , dated Oct. 29, Lewis complained about not
having
access to a television set, other inmates "yelling and screaming all day
and
night," and not being able to see his lawyers.
In separate court documents, Lewis' attorneys said their client doesn't
seem to
recognize them or understand what's going on in the various court
actions that
have led up to this week's trial.
Mobile Register.
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The following two news articles both appear courtesy of the 12/1/99
online
edition of The Mobile Register newspaper:
December 01, 1999
Walking the walk
By MARTHA SIMMONS
Register Staff Reporter
12/01/99
BAY MINETTE - Defendants usually dress to impress, hoping to positively
influence a jury with a clean-cut appearance.
But in the case of professed serial killer Gerald Patrick Lewis, the
opposite
seems true.
In a dramatic change from his short-haired, clean-cut appearance last
year
after his arrest, Lewis - now with shoulder-length black hair and a long
beard
- eerily resembles serial killer Charles Manson.
Lewis, 34, of Daphne, has entered an insanity plea in the first of
several
trials pending in two states involving four slayings, as well as a
string of
other crimes. He confessed to killing Misty McGugin, 22, of Chickasaw,
in a
motel on the Causeway, and Kathleen Bracken, 32, of Swampscott, Mass.,
in a
Mobile motel. He also faces charges that he murdered two women in
Georgia and
other crimes.
Testimony begins today in Baldwin County Circuit Court in a jury trial
to
determine whether Lewis is competent to stand trial. If he is declared
competent, the capital murder trial begins immediately in the McGugin
slaying,
as well as charges related to the attempted abductions of two young
women in
Baldwin County in 1998.
The maximum penalty in Alabama for a capital murder conviction is death
in the
electric chair.
Some involved in the case suggested that Lewis' physical transformation
is
evidence of madness; others suggested he's just faking to help his case.
"His appearance is just another in the long list of things he's not
doing,
advice he's not heeding," said court-appointed defense attorney Rusty
Pigott,
of Foley.
Pigott would not comment on whether he thought Lewis was deliberately
emulating
Manson, but said his behavior is erratic enough that it's difficult for
his
lawyers to defend him in the case.
"Because of Mr. Lewis' mental state and the fact that he is not
presently on
any medication, he is not sufficiently able to assist in his defense,"
Pigott
said.
Pigott said he expects to present an expert witness at the competency
hearing
who will testify that Lewis' mental state could be much improved with
proper
psychiatric drugs, which Lewis cannot afford. Moreover, it would take
six weeks
or more for the medication to be fully effective.
If the jury determines Lewis is competent, another jury will hear the
capital
murder case immediately.
Baldwin County District Attorney David Whetstone would not comment
directly on
the change in Lewis' appearance.
"We'll let the jury hear evidence on that," he said, adding that
testimony from
the state psychiatrist who examined Lewis would be relevant.
Forensic examiner Vonceil Smith, who interviewed Lewis at the Taylor
Hardin
Secure Medical Facility in Tuscaloosa, would not comment to a Mobile
Register
reporter prior to giving her testimony.
But, in a court filing last year, she wrote, "It was generally my
clinical
impression that Mr. Lewis engaged in a number of statements and
behaviors
designed to feign psychiatric disturbance."
Other court records indicate that Lewis claims he hears voices,
including that
of a former girlfriend who bore his child. Moreover, he has been
previously
institutionalized, and has been in jail much of his adult life.
The findings of a study published in 1996 suggest that defendants have
only a
slim chance of being declared not guilty by reason of insanity. The
study,
which appeared in the bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and
the
Law, found that juries acquitted only 16 percent of defendants claiming
to be
not guilty by reason of insanity. The study reviewed statistics from
seven
states; the Mobile Register could not learn Tuesday whether Alabama was
one of
the seven.
In the 24 years Whetstone has served as a Baldwin prosecutor, he said he
can
recall only one time the defense worked, and then it was only partially
successful.
In 1993, Raymond Giadrosich of Bay Minette was convicted of murdering
his
mother-in-law, but was ruled insane in the killing of his wife. He shot
both
women outside a downtown Bay Minette law office in 1991.
Just last month, Charles Gregory Clark of Seminole was convicted of the
1998
slaying of William "Manzy" Ewing, a Fort Morgan store owner, and
received the
death penalty. The decision came despite Clark's claims during the trial
that
he was out of his mind on crack cocaine at the time of the murder.
"It may behoove the lawyer to try entering an insanity plea as a
strategy, but
it rarely, if ever, succeeds," said Mobile psychiatrist Dr. Daniel F.
Becker.
"It just hasn't proven to be a strong defense.
Even if a defendant is proven to be mentally ill, jurors often convict
them,
anyway.
"It's a very tricky question. You have to prove they couldn't tell right
from
wrong and weren't in control of their faculties," Becker said.
Mobile Register.
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December 01, 1999
Potential jurors asked for their opinions on capital punishment
By MARTHA SIMMONS
Register Staff Reporter
BAY MINETTE - A painstakingly slow jury-selection process began Monday
and
continues today, as prosecutors and defense attorneys pick the men and
women
who will decide the fate of self-described serial killer Gerald Patrick
Lewis.
Two separate juries will be impaneled for companion trials scheduled to
begin
this week in Baldwin County Circuit Court.
Lewis, 34, of Daphne, is charged with the 1998 murders of Misty McGugin
of
Chickasaw in a Causeway motel and Kathleen Bracken in a Mobile County
motel. He
also is expected to be extradited to Georgia later to face two murder
charges
there.
Jurors in the first case will be asked to decide whether Lewis is
competent to
stand trial for capital murder in the slaying of Ms. McGugin, as well as
for a
string of other charges including robbery, attempted murder, attempted
rape and
attempted kidnapping.
In court documents, Lewis' attorneys contend he isn't competent because
he
doesn't seem to recognize them when they visit. They also argue that he
doesn't
understand the court process, and is therefore unable to assist with his
own
defense.
If the jury decides Lewis is competent, the capital murder trial will
immediately ensue. Lewis has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of
mental
disease or defect.
The questioning resumes at 8:30 a.m. today as lawyers select two jury
panels
from a slate of 150 Baldwin County residents summoned to serve on the
specially
set trials.
Throughout the day Monday, prospective jurors answered a string of
questions
from attorneys for both sides.
Some of the questions were intensely personal, as lawyers attempted to
discern
whether potential jurors had any personal experience with or knowledge
of
mental illness or crime. Dozens were questioned outside the hearing of
the
audience as they confided the details to presiding Judge Lyn Stuart, the
lawyers and court reporter.
Pretrial publicity also was scrutinized. A show of hands revealed that
most
potential jurors knew something about the case through the local print
and
broadcast media.
Investigators said Lewis led them to Ms. McGugin's body in Daphne. The
defendant also revealed to a Mobile Register reporter and law
enforcement
officers much of the information that has led to the charges he now
faces in
two states.
He has also claimed to have killed another woman in Massachusetts, but
court
records do not indicate he faces charges there.
Since Lewis claimed in taped statements that some of his victims were
prostitutes, prospective jurors also were asked Monday whether that
would
affect their decision-making.
And members of the jury pool were asked whether they have strong
feelings about
capital punishment. The maximum penalty for capital murder in Alabama is
death
by the electric chair.
With shoulder-length, nearly black hair and a black beard down to his
chest,
Lewis looked far different on Monday than in photos dating back to his
April
1998 arrest. In those pictures, he wore his sandy brown hair and
mustache short
and neatly trimmed.
Dressed in a navy pinstripe suit and open-necked shirt, Lewis sat
impassively
throughout the court proceedings and rarely spoke to his attorneys or
made eye
contact with them.
Mobile Register.