‘I want to look crazy,’ Cowell told clinician

John Cowell stands accused of murder, attempted murder of Wilson sisters

OAKLAND » Murder defendant John Lee Cowell told a clinician while in jail that he wanted to appear crazy.

“I want to look crazy,” Cowell said to Alameda County behavioral health clinician Ian Vianu at Santa Rita Jail in 2019.

Cowell is accused of the fatal stabbing of Nia Wilson, 18, and the attempted murder of her older sister, Letifah Wilson, on July 22, 2018, at the MacArthur BART station. The two women, and a third sister, were heading home from a family gathering in Concord.

During testimony Thursday, the clinician said Cowell also told him he was “feeling optimistic about the possibility of a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict.” Cowell has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for his charges of murder, attempted murder with the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait.

If found guilty of any charges, he could face a separate “sanity phase” of the trial, where the same jury will determine if he was sane during the time of the crime. He could face time at a state mental hospital instead of prison if found insane.

Although the defense doesn’t deny the stabbing took place, Cowell’s attorney argues it was a “rash impulse” stemming from Cowell’s diagnosed mental illness, namely schizophrenia. Cowell told the jury in testimony last week that he believed the Wilson sisters were aliens who had kidnapped his grandmother and were going to harm her. His grandmother had died, however, years before the 2018 attack, his aunt testified.

Vianu conducted visits with Cowell at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin from December 2018 to July 2019. During one of those visits, in January 2019, Cowell told him that it was “so easy to ace the test,” referring to competency proceedings.

In December 2018, Cowell’s attorney, Christina Moore, expressed a doubt about Cowell’s mental competency and court-appointed doctors were assigned to evaluate him. If deemed incompetent to stand trial, Cowell could have been placed in a state mental hospital until his competency was restored. But in July 2019, a judge ruled Cowell competent for trial.

Vianu also testified that during one visit in 2019, that Cowell told him that there were individuals in court who were white and Chinese and who wanted to make music with him. Cowell said he was Lil Wayne, a well-known rap star. Vianu also said that he once told him that a deputy in jail threatened his family and was going to rape him. Vianu testified that this could be a potential delusion, as he found no evidence of such an allegation.

Jesus Perez, a psychiatrist who evaluated Cowell while at Atascadero State mental hospital from January to May 2018, also testified Thursday. He said Cowell told him at the time that he used marijuana and methamphetamine on a daily basis, and also drank a fifth of alcohol every day.

Perez said he had concerns that Cowell was “malingering” or faking/exaggerating some of his symptoms. He said that although Cowell reported hearing voices, he didn’t see any evidence of that during a mental status exam. He said Cowell had a linear thought process, whereas typically people with schizophrenia make it difficult to follow their thought process.

Also on the stand Thursday was a psychiatrist who evaluated Cowell at the John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro in June 2018 and a neighbor who knew Cowell for 11 years in the mobile home park where Cowell sometimes resided in Concord. The neighbor, Georgina Agnitsch, said she watched Cowell grow from a troubled youth at the age of 15 to a severely mentally ill adult.

She described how Cowell used to have friends, but then would ask people, herself included, to check their mouths for a hidden transmitter.

She said as long as she has known Cowell, whom she referred to as Johnny Lee, he has been a drug addict, taking meth, Molly ( Ecstasy) and abused alcohol. His mental illness would get worse with drugs, except when he smoked marijuana, she said.

The defense rested its case Thursday, and the prosecution has several rebuttal witnesses planned. Testimony will continue Monday and is expected to finish Tuesday.