UT suspect likely to claim mental episode

When former University of Texas student Kendrex White steps into a Travis County courtroom this week to tell a judge he was in the throes of a psychotic episode during an unprovoked stabbing spree that left another student dead and three wounded last year, his fate will hinge on a legal interpretation of insanity that began to narrow after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

In 1981, Reagan, then in the first year of his presidency, was walking from a speaking engagement at a hotel in Washington when he was shot, leaving him with internal bleeding.

The lawyers who represented the shooter, John Hinckley Jr., argued in his trial that their client had deep psychological issues that manifested in a plan to recreate a shooting scene in the film “Taxi Driver.”

Believing Hinckley’s mental state exonerated him from any responsibility, the jury returned not guilty verdicts on all 13 counts to the chagrin of many lawmakers across the country, who set off to tighten insanity laws in their states. Texas enacted legislation that added new language to the state’s insanity law and made it more difficult for defendants to blame a mental health breakdown for a crime they’ve committed.

As a result, White and his defense lawyers will not only have to demonstrate that he was suffering from severe mental illness when he killed 19-year-old Harrison Brown near Gregory Gymnasium in May 2017, but also that it impaired his ability to discern right from wrong.

“Before Hinckley shot Reagan, the predominant rule was the person had to be overcome by some influence that they didn’t have control over,” former Travis County prosecutor Brian Case said. “They could be found not guilty by reason of insanity even though they knew what they did was wrong. That cannot happen anymore.”

White, who has been jailed since the stabbings, last month waived his right to a jury trial and opted for state District Judge Tamara Needles to be the sole fact finder in his case. That means White’s team of lawyers will have to convince Needles that their client was insane when he committed the attack.

“That’s hard to do,” retired Judge Bob Perkins said. “It’s not a cakewalk.”

The trial begins Tuesday. Attorneys for both sides have declined to discuss specifics of the proceeding, but District Attorney Margaret Moore said in November that the focus will be on White’s mental health at the time of the attack.

If Needles accepts the insanity defense, she will schedule a proceeding where she could order him to be committed to a state mental health facility. Or, she could reject his defense, find him guilty of murder and sentence him to prison for 5 to 99 years.