Stabbing suspect moved to secure psychiatric facility
STAMFORD — The Guilford teen accused of trying to stab a woman to death outside a Westport beauty salon in January was transferred Tuesday to a locked state mental health facility, according to the terms of his release on $1 million bond, his attorney said.
Ellis Tibere, 18, will remain in the Whiting Forensic Institute in Middletown in a locked setting with around-the-clock supervision and psychiatric care at least until his next court date on March 2.
Tibere is prohibited from leaving the facility without contacting the court for further conditions of his release on bond, which would likely include electronic monitoring and house arrest, his attorney John Gulash said.
The conditions are not much different than someone who is facing charges and has a substance abuse problem, Gulash said Tuesday.
“As a condition of their release, they might go directly into an inpatient drug treatment program,” the attorney said.
Tibere is accused of nearly killing a random Greenwich woman who he allegedly attacked with a 6-inch serrated knife as she sat in her car outside a
Westport beauty salon in January. Tibere told police he had been considering killing someone for a decade, and if released, he would attack again, according to the prosecutor in the case.
Tibere has been found competent to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault and possession of a deadly weapon. But he and his attorney could still consider an insanity defense, which would require him to undergo an independent psychiatric evaluation and provide other information, including his records while at Whiting to prove he committed the crime due to a mental defect, said Ellen Lachance, the executive director of the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board.
Lachance’s agency is not involved in the case and would not intervene unless Tibere had been found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a secure Connecticut mental health facility with oversight by the review board.
Lachance explained that those who are found competent to stand trial can still seek an insanity defense. Competency evaluates whether defendants understand the charges and can participate in their own defense, she said.
A finding of insanity in the moments when a person commits a crime is a separate issue that can be ruled on by judge after a prosecutor and a defense attorney each present their evidence, Lachance said.
“The defense can say that if he did this act, did he do it as a result of a psychiatric illness,” Lachance said.
If he were found not guilty by reason of insanity, Tibere would be committed to the board’s supervision until the agency comprised of experts in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, parole and victim advocacy deem him able to be released back into the community.
The prosecutor in the case argued Monday against Tibere’s release, saying he remained a threat to the community, based on comments he made to Westport police following his arrest.
Tibere told police he had been thinking of killing another person for nearly 10 years, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Valdes said. Valdes said Tibere told police if he were released, he would try to do it again.
“Based on his conduct and his statements, we believe he is a risk to the community,” Valdes said.
The attack came a day after his parents reported him missing and he was found sitting in his car in a parking lot. Tibere told police he would head home, according to a report of the incident. But officers could not require him to contact his parents since he is an adult, the report said.
The next morning as his father again notified police that his son hadn’t shown up, police said, Tibere was waiting for hours outside the beauty salon before he attacked the random 33year-old woman.
Her wounds were so deep that one of the men who came to her rescue had to use a tourniquet to staunch the flow of blood, police said. The location where she was stabbed looked like a murder scene, police told Valdes.
Search warrants unsealed last week revealed that Tibere admitted to Westport police after his Jan. 6 arrest that he broke into two homes in town and planned to ambush the residents when they returned.
Gulash declined to comment last week about the search warrants, which did not indicate when Tibere allegedly broke into the homes and if police notified the residents. Police also declined to provide more information.
The search warrants also do not say what thwarted Tibere’s alleged plot to kill the homeowners.