Man seeks release from maximum-security hospital
A Wilton man spent over an hour on the stand Wednesday telling a Stamford judge all the reasons why he should be let out of the Whiting Forensic Hospital, the state’s maximum security psychiatric hospital, where he was committed six years ago for the brutal murder of his elderly father.
Wearing a gray suit jacket, white shirt, striped tie and glasses, Aaron Ramsey, 29, spoke slowly and deliberately in a very measured tone, explaining to Judge Richard Comerford how he has been given seven psychological diagnoses, the last of which diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, which he said runs in his family.
“There is a genetic predisposition,” he said. “I have something that makes me a risk for mental illness more than others, more than the average person.”
In December 2012, Comerford presided over a two-day trial with two other judges and found that Ramsey was not guilty by reason of insanity for killing his father Edward Ramsey, 73, in their Wilton home on May 3, 2012. The judges found that Ramsey was in an “acute psychotic condition” and lacked the mental capacity to know what he was doing, Comerford said at the end of the trial.
The following March, Comerford ordered Ramsey to spend the next 50 years at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown and committed him to the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board, which oversees the cases of those acquitted of a crime by reason of mental disease or defect..
Last September, Ramsey filed a motion to be discharged from the supervision of the Psychiatric Security Review Board, saying that he no longer “suffers from psychiatric disabilities to the extent that his discharge would constitute a danger to himself or others.”
While being questioned by Monte Radler, a senior assistant public defender, Ramsey said he was doing much better and after two years had been moved to the lesssecure Dutcher Enhanced Security building, part of the Whiting Forensic division, which used to be part of Connecticut Valley Hospital.
The 29-year-old said he has been voluntarily taking a new medication since February while at the Dutcher complex, where he has made hundreds of trips out into the community without incident, visiting libraries, seeing sporting events, giving talks, participating in 5K runs and going on shopping trips.
Ramsey also said he was now aware of the symptoms of his “decompensation,” that is to say when he is losing his grip on reality. Those symptoms include becoming more manic, having extreme energy, believing that people are communicating with him telepathically, crying, becoming depressed, and being either too confident or withdrawing from other people because he believes they are working against him.
If he began feeling those symptoms while on the outside, Ramsey said he could call upon his relapse prevention team of a psychiatrist, social worker and a sponsor to help get him back on track. Since his commitment, Ramsey said he has not acted violently toward anyone, even a man who assaulted him three or four times.
According to the police report of his father’s murder, on the morning of May 3, 2012, Ramsey heard his father playing piano in their geodesic dome home on Signal Hill Road and told his father to leave the home, but the elder Ramsey refused. Ramsey then gave his father what he called a “death blow” to the head, and subsequently took the piano bench and beat him with it. Ramsey then retrieved a knife in the kitchen and stabbed his father repeatedly in the neck, torso and groin. He also kicked him and stomped on his head.
Covered in blood, Ramsey went into a nearby house on Cheese Spring Road and laid down on the floor. Police found Ramsey incoherent, screaming and flailing.
“I just have so much more knowledge about mental illness and how to stay healthy now,” Ramsey said Wednesday, adding that he would like to go on and teach yoga or fitness to others while continuing to participate in mental health treatment if he could be released to an approved residence in New Haven.
When asked about what happened to his father, Ramsey said there were sometimes when he thinks about it and misses his father. Ramsey said he did not want to wait too much longer to get his life back.