Judge prevented man from giving evidence of mental illness

For David, that has been easier than most might think. He takes solace in the fact that Connie died quickly and with no indication she felt any pain. In the last few years of her life, she had been having memory loss and other medical issues that were frustrating to her. The couple feared what could have been a years-long decline.

That morning, just moments before she was stabbed, Connie turned to David as they headed downstairs for breakfast and said, “I want to thank you for all the years of wonderful, loving care you’ve given me.” They hugged.

Her two most fervent prayers were answered when she was killed, said David, who is 78.

“Connie went up to Jesus, and prayers came down like wonderful raindrops,” he said, noting that Levi, almost immediately, got the mental health care his wife had prayed for.

Ruth and David are trying to change Pennsylvania’s dangerousness standard for having someone involuntarily committed.

“It’s a nightmare for the people who have to live with this as family members,” David said.

“By the time you get to ‘clear and present danger,’ it’s too late,” Ruth said.

“We never really expected it to be violent,” Ruth said. “But he had pickled in the delusion for so long, it became real to him. It took him that much psychosis — five years — to get him to do something violent. He never punched a wall. He never raised his voice.

“He was never violent until he was.”