Insanity plea deal accepted in face-biting case

FORT LAUDERDALE (Florida): A judge accepted a plea deal for a man who randomly killed a Florida couple in their garage six years ago and then chewed on one victim’s face that will send him to a mental hospital for treatment.

Austin Harrouff, 25, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of first-degree murder and other charges for the 2016 slayings of John Stevens, 59, and his wife, Michelle Mishcon Stevens, 53. He also seriously injured a neighbour who tried to help them.

Harrouff, who attended Florida

State University before the attack, will be committed to a secure mental health facility until doctors and a judge agree that he is no longer dangerous. If the trial had gone forward, Harrouff could have faced life in prison.

A number of family members of the slain couple expressed anger at the decision and made victim impact statements directed at Harrouff, his family, the defence team and prosecutors.

Cindy Mishcon, the sister of Michelle Mishcon and an attorney, laid out a methodical case of why she does not believe that Harrouff was insane when the killings occurred.

“You can’t even look at me?” she asked Harrouff, who was sitting at the defence table, wearing a red and white striped prison uniform and glasses. She said that she had begun writing her victim impact statement when she was “naive enough” to think there would be justice.

Mishcon said that reality set in for her as she listened to tapes of Harrouff’s jailhouse phone calls with family members and the reading of pages of text messages in the year prior to the killings, which were part of the court record.

The text messages with his friends outlined the life of a student who was smoking marijuana, taking other drugs and abusing alcohol the year before killing the couple.

She said she realised “you don’t care about anyone but yourself ” and that “the only victim you and your family see is you, and the Harrouff name”.

“Is it really so hard for you to understand that you are a cold blooded murderer and not a victim,” she asked.