ACCUSED MURDERER STILL UNDER PSYCHIATRIC CARE

Accused murderer James Armstrong will remain under psychiatric care at the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital for another 90 days while clinicians attempt to restore his competency to stand trial for fatally shooting his cousin, Ralph Sebastian Sidberry, on April 12, 2017.

Armstrong, 30, and Sidberry, 31, both belonged to the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation. Armstrong is accused of shooting Sidberry outside of Sidberry’s Lantern Hill Road home in North Stonington because he believed Sidberry had spread the AIDS virus to several members of the tribe. State police said blood tests taken during Sidberry’s autopsy showed he did not have the virus.

Armstrong had no prior criminal record, but his family members said his behavior had changed in recent years. Arrested in Missouri and extradited to Connecticut in September 2017, Armstrong was diagnosed by Department of Correction clinicians with schizophrenia and psychotic disorder but refused to take medication.

New London Superior Court Judge Hillary B. Strackbein ruled he was incompetent in November 2017 and ordered him committed to the state forensic hospital for treatment to restore competency. In order to be competent to stand trial, a defendant must be able to understand the proceedings against him or and to assist in his own defense.

Forensic social worker Susan McKinley testified briefly at a hearing Monday that Armstrong remains incompetent but that clinicians think there is a “substantial probability” he can be restored with another 90 days of psychiatric treatment. Strackbein continued the case until July 30, when he will again be evaluated for competency.

According to a report submitted to the court on April 25 by Armstrong’s treatment team at Whiting, Armstrong has been taking psychotropic medications under the care of a conservator appointed by a probate judge. His mood is more stable and he has a more rationale and accurate understanding of the court system, but his “thinking remains distorted by paranoid and delusional ideas that prevent him from collaborating with his attorney and thinking rationally about the resolution of his case,” the report says.