Suspect's mental state questioned
Man accused in UT stabbings could try to mount insanity defense.
Whether Kendrex White could distinguish between right and wrong when police say he stabbed four University of Texas students last month, including one who died, might determine if he serves a sentence in a mental health facility instead of a state prison.
Several legal experts and psychiatric doctors told the American-Statesman that White’s behavior and his statements after the May 1 attack support the theory his conduct was instigated by extreme mental illness and opens the door for his attorneys to argue he is not guilty by insanity.
“He has some things going for him that a lot of insanity defenses don’t have,” retired state District Judge Jon Wisser said.
White, who is charged with murder in the death of UT freshman Harrison Brown, didn’t remember the attack, according to the arrest affidavit. Asked by police if he was hearing voices, the 21-yearold biology student replied his mind told him to “withhold any action that he did because it really
didn’t happen.” He reiterated not remembering the attack, telling investigators at the end of the interview, “If I did something I don’t remember, then I want to be told.”
All of this came from someone whose parents said they had never even been called to the principal’s office for their son before.
His mental state at the time of the attack will be the subject of a pivotal hearing Friday in a Travis County state district court. According to a motion filed weeks ago, prosecutors for the district attorney’s office will seek permission from the court to appoint a doctor to evaluate White for insanity. They will likely ask that the test be conducted soon to get an accurate reading of how White was feeling on the day of the attack.
But White’s attorneys, who might have already ordered their own insanity test, are fighting the state’s motion, presumably because they see no upside to exposing their client to questioning that could ultimately be harmful to their case, legal experts said. The decision falls on Judge Tamara Needles, who is presiding over her first major case since taking over in the 427th District Court in January.
White is charged with murder. The case has yet to be heard by a grand jury.
Julie Alonso-Katzowitz, a forensic psychiatrist at UT’s Dell Medical School, said an insanity evaluation — formally known as a criminal responsibility evaluation — aims to identify “the driver behind (a defendant’s) act.” Reviewing medical records and interviewing associates of the defendant also help form the conclusion.
“Was there some excited belief or delusional thinking that was going on?” Alonso-Katzowitz said. “Was there paranoia? Did they feel like they were trying to protect someone? You’re trying to get to the core of whether there was delusional belief or whether the person was so out of touch they couldn’t tell right from wrong.”
A Travis County jury has found a criminal defendant not guilty by insanity just twice, both in the past 12 years. Many insanity defenses unravel because the defendant did something to indicate he or she knew the act was wrong, like running to evade police, lying or discarding a weapon.
In 2014, attorneys for Alexander Ervin argued successfully he had been going through a psychotic episode when he killed his father, Ray Scott Ervin. In 2005, Jackson Ngai was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the stabbing of Danielle Martin, 56, his UT piano professor. Ngai told investigators he believed Martin planned to kill him and that she had a computer chip in her brain.
Both men avoided prison and were committed to a state hospital.
Attorneys for White haven’t indicated if they plan to raise an insanity defense and aren’t obligated to do so until 20 days before the start of the trial. That could be another year from now. They also aren’t required to release findings of the test to prosecutors.
A separate test ordered by the judge determined White to be competent, which means he is able to discuss the case with his attorneys. That finding, which is common and has a lower threshold than insanity, simply allows the case to proceed.
Richard Coons, a retired psychiatrist in Austin, said that, with what he knows about the case, an insanity defense is plausible. He pointed to White’s involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility prior to the attack as evidence something was wrong with him.
“That’s just more evidence he wasn’t in his right mind,” Coons said. “That hospitalization is going to be important to this case.”