Experts talk about the effect of brain abnormalities
Witnesses for the defense of Billy Joel Tracy testify
NEW BOSTON, Texas— Medical experts testified Thursday that brain abnormalities and the effects of living in a solitary environment could explain Billy Joel Tracy’s history of violence.
Tracy, 39, was convicted of capital murder Oct. 27 in the July 15, 2015, beating death of Correctional Officer Timothy Davison at the Barry Telford Unit in New Boston. He faces a possible death sentence.
Since Nov. 1, the jury has heard testimony from witnesses for the state regarding Tracy’s violent past both in and out of prison. On Thursday, the jury heard from witnesses for the defense.
Under questioning from Mount Pleasant lawyer Mac Cobb, Travis Snyder, a neuroradiologist who practices in Nevada, testified that an MRI of Tracy’s brain showed significant abnormalities in his temporal lobe that could interfere with his ability to regulate his emotion and inhibitions. Snyder, who said he was unfamiliar with Tracy’s criminal history when he reviewed his scans, testified that he would not be surprised to learn that someone with Tracy’s “abnormal brain” has behavioral deficits. “From his brain scan, I would expect he has issues,” Snyder said.
Under cross examination from Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp, Snyder said he would leave analysis of how Tracy’s brain abnormalities affect his functioning to a different medical or psychological professional. Crisp quizzed Snyder on how someone with the problems he predicted could meticulously plan assaults and escape attempts.
Clinical and forensic psychologist Mark Cunningham testified under questioning from Cobb that he believes the stress of solitary confinement Tracy has experienced during his approximately 13 years in administrative segregation has significantly weakened Tracy’s “psychological equilibrium.” Tracy has been in administrative segregation since he stabbed and seriously wounded Correctional Officer Katie Stanley in November 2005 while in general population at the Clements Unit in Amarillo, Texas.
Cunningham said Tracy exhibits many of the symptoms associated in psychological literature with prolonged isolation, particularly when coupled with a lack of family support and an underlying physiological component as Snyder described. Cunningham said inmates who are isolated for long stretches tend to “become a savage or sink into despair.”
Cunningham said administrative segregation units are bad not only for inmates but also for their keepers.
“They are often characterized by reciprocal escalation and dehumanization,” Cunningham testified.
Cunningham’s description of such a unit as “trench warfare” between officers and inmates led to objections from Crisp, which 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart overruled.
“The staff becomes callous and cynical,” Cunningham said.
During her cross examination of Cunningham, Crisp showed a photo of Kasey Kuhn’s battered face taken in a Dallas hospital. In 1998, Tracy forced Kuhn from her bedroom in Garland, Texas, beat her, burned her with cigarettes and dragged her into a wooded area in Rockwall, Texas..
“I’m guessing that’s Katie Stanley,” Cunningham said when asked if he could identify the person in the photo.
After Crisp told Cunningham the photo was of a teen girl Tracy assaulted before he ever spent time in segregation, Cunningham said he wasn’t sure Tracy meant to kill the girl, as Tracy said was his intent in a video statement with a Texas Department of Criminal Justice Office of Inspector General investigator played last week for the jury.
Under additional questioning from Cobb, Cunningham said Tracy’s behavior in prison was better when his father was alive and visiting him. Cunningham said Tracy’s childhood, his brain abnormality and his time in segregation factored into Davison’s murder.
The jury also heard from a childhood friend of Tracy’s, Dawn Monti.
Under questioning from Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson, Monti testified that she became close to Tracy in middle school and that she has visited and written him since hearing of Davison’s murder on the news. Monti said Tracy was protective of her when they were young and that he would not allow anyone to pick on her or on him.
Monti said she visited Tracy after his committment to a psychiatric hospital in junior high. Monti said Tracy’s parents did not want the responsibility of caring for him or for his sister.
Crisp questioned Monti about her knowledge of Tracy’s prior assaults.
“I know he assaulted a woman 20 years ago,” Monti said.
When Crisp asked Monti about the attack on Stanley, Monti said Tracy told her Stanley had done something to one of his friends and that he retaliated on the friend’s behalf.
Immediately after the assault on Stanley, Tracy told OIG staff that he was angry because officers were taking his property, particularly a tube of toothpaste.
Monti said she has always known Tracy to be intelligent and kind and considers him a friend.
TDCJ inmate Courtney Shepherd also described Tracy as a friend. Shepherd, who is serving a sentence of life with the possibility parole for murder, said he was housed in administrative segregation in the same pod as Tracy at the Robertson Unit in Abilene, Texas. Shepherd said he spent many hours as a “cell warrior,” meaning he did whatever he could to be disruptive.
“You’re frustrated. You’re locked in a cell 23 hours a day. You’re constantly trying to figure out something to do. Yelling, cussing, slapping your hands,” Shepherd said. “I was hungry. Cell warrior. That was me for a long time.”
A large man, Shepherd said he can touch both walls of a cell in administrative segregation if he stands in the center and stretches out his arms.
Shepherd testified that he enjoyed the times when he and Tracy would be in side-byside outdoor recreation yards because of the conversations they had. Shepherd said Tracy spent time talking to him about being a cell warrior and helped convince him to follow the rules so he could earn a less restrictive environment.
Shepherd now is in general population and credits Tracy with helping him get there.
“At first, I thought he just didn’t want to hear me holler,” Shepherd said. “He said you got time to do, do stuff with your time.”
Shepherd said he believes there is more to Tracy than his criminal convictions.
Testimony from defense witnesses is expected to resume today. The trial is expected to continue into next week.