Competency case goes to jury
EL CENTRO — Jury deliberations began Tuesday afternoon following closing arguments in the mental competency hearing for murder defendant Ioan Laurint.
Closing arguments largely consisted of counsel attempting to undermine the credibility, expertise and ultimate conclusions of the mental health professionals who had respectively testified on their behalf.
County Assistant District Attorney Deborah Owen was first to address jurors, reminding them that the evidence and testimony the defense had presented in court failed to meet the burden of proof required to find Laurint not competent to stand trial.
In addition, Owen said, the testimony of the psychologist hired by the defense who initially determined Laurint was incompetent was overly vague on many occasions, arbitrarily characterized much of Laurint’s behavior as psychologically impaired and dismissive of evidence that suggested otherwise.
“That’s not meeting the burden,” Owen said. “That’s an attempt to stand between you and the truth.”
During his closing argument, defense attorney Donald Levine also cast aspersions on the psychologist that Owen had retained to evaluate Laurint and who concluded the defendant was competent to stand trial.
Levine asserted that that psychologist’s determination was nothing more than a glaring example of “confirmation bias,” where the evaluation was used to further bolster a preconceived notion of competency that had initially been suggested by Owen.
“His results were a foregone conclusion,” Levine said. “Basically he was given a mission and his commander in the mission was Owen.”
Tuesday’s hearing capped more than six days of testimony from nearly 20 witnesses, including three mental health experts who had determined Laurint was not competent to stand trial.
By law, Laurint is presumed competent to stand trial and the burden to prove otherwise falls to the defense.
Much of Levine’s closing argument called into question the perceived professional shortcomings of forensic and clinical psychologist Robert Brodie, a senior psychiatric supervisor at Patton State Hospital.
Brodie had evaluated Laurint in June on behalf of the county DA’s Office and subsequently determined the defendant was faking symptoms of psychological and cognitive impairment, also known as malingering.
Brodie, Levine told jurors, had failed to consider Laurint’s documented history of mental illness, failed to interview family members who could’ve attested to Laurint’s limited capacity to speak and understand English, and should’ve never subjected Laurint to a 3 1/2 –hour evaluation in English.
“I submit to you Dr. Brodie’s evaluation is unreliable,” Levine told jurors.
In contrast, Owen reminded jurors that Brodie was the only one of the four mental health professionals involved in the matter who had subjected Laurint to extensive tests aimed at determining malingering.
She also reminded jurors that the two courtordered county Behavioral Health Services mental health professionals who had determined in April that Laurint was not competent had overly relied on the findings of the psychologist who was hired by Levine to evaluate Laurint in late 2017.
That San Diego-based psychologist, Francisco Gomez, had also proven to be unqualified, dismissive of evidence that suggested Laurint was highly capable of communicating in English, and never fully considered the incentive for Laurint to fake his symptoms, Owen said.
“They have not proven the defendant more likely than not is incompetent now,” she said.
The criteria for concluding a defendant is not competent to stand trial includes an inability to effectively assist with their defense, understand the proceedings of the underlying criminal case, as well as understand his status and condition in the court proceedings.
The jury in the civil proceeding must reach a unanimous decision that Laurint is either competent or incompetent to stand trial. Failure to reach a unanimous verdict would result in county Superior Court Judge L. Brooks declaring a mistrial.
The jury will not deliberate today due to a scheduling conflict for Anderholt and is scheduled to resume deliberations on Thursday.
Laurint stands accused of the Feb. 17, 2017, fatal stabbing of El Centro attorney Anne Marie Zimmermann at a motel on Adams Avenue in El Centro.