Sep 23, 2008 10:46 pm US/Eastern
Defense Rests In Hernandez Trial
Hernandez's Legal Team Acknowledges He Killed Jaime In 2004, But Contends He Was Legally Insane At The Time.
Click Here To Watch The Entire Hernandez Confession Video
ORLANDO (CBS4) ―
-
-
Michael Hernandez in Orlando as jury selection got underway on Sept. 8, 2008.
CBS
-
-
Jamie Gough was stabbed to death in the bathroom of Southwood Middle School in February, 2004.
CBS4 News
The judge presiding over the Michael Hernandez murder case hopes to put the teen's fate in the hands of the jury by the end of the week. What was once expected to be a six week trial could be over in as little as three.
Defense attorneys rested its case in an Orlando courtroom on Tuesday for Michael Hernandez, a South Florida teen accused of killing a classmate four years ago in a Palmetto Bay school bathroom.
When Judge Richard Schlesinger asked Hernandez if he wanted to testify, the 18 year old quietly said, "No."
"Is this your decision of your own free will, after conferring with your lawyers?" the judge asked.
"Yes," Hernandez said.
"Has anyone promised you or guaranteed you how the case is going to turn out?" the judge asked.
"No," Hernandez replied.
At the conclusion of the case, the defense asked the judge to enter a directed verdict of acquittal, not guilty by reason of insanity.
"We feel based on the mental health testimony that there's not enough evidence to move forward," defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum said.
Judge Schlesinger denied the defense motion.
Prosecutors called their first rebuttal witness, University of Miami psychiatrist Dr. Jon Shaw.
Shaw testified Hernandez was mentally ill, but not legally insane when he stabbed classmate Jaime Gough to death. Shaw testified Hernandez was a bright student who developed an obsessive fear of death and decided to become a serial killer and perhaps achieve fame.
Shaw said, "He became enamored of the whole idea of becoming a serial killer, which would give him, and he said this, would give him notoriety."
Shaw explained Hernandez's withdrawal from family and friends in the months before the murder, "As part of his rigid training to become a serial killer, he started to isolate himself."
"His idea was, if you want to become a serial killer, you cannot have loving, tender, caring feelings" about family or friends.
He said Michael had no remorse, and believed the worse thing that ever happened to him was not that he killed Gough, but that he was in jail.
"I don't think the he really appreciates the gravity, emotionally, that he took another human life," Shaw said.
That opinion conflicts with three defense experts who testified on Monday that Hernandez was a paranoid schizophrenic who was detached from reality and did not appreciate the consequences of his actions.
The three mental health experts testified they believed Hernandez was legally insane when he killed Gough.
In 2004, prosecutors say Hernandez lured Gough, 14, into a bathroom at Southwood Middle School and stabbed him to death. Hernandez was also charged with attempting to kill another classmate, Andre Martin.
Last week, defense expert Dr. Barry Rosenfeld, a forensic psychologist, who was questioned for more than 10 hours over two days, told jurors his assessment of Hernandez's mental state.
"I've diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia," Rosenfeld said. "It's a psychotic disorder. It's a break from reality, someone who is out of touch with reality," he added.
Rosenfeld also mentioned Hernandez's diary, saying "He was going to kill all the people in the world. The idea that he could kill all the people in the world is absurd for anyone, certainly an 18 year old."
Rosenfeld said schizophrenia is a disorder partly due to genetics.
"It's a combination of the genes you're born with and the circumstances you grow up with," he said.
Explaining Hernandez's calm, cool confession, Rosenfeld commented, "A paranoid schizophrenic can sound coherent, but have all kinds of crazy ideas."
The testimony was used to lay the framework for the defense, claiming Michael was criminally insane during the time of the killing.
On the legal issue of an insanity defense, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Schlesinger told the jurors, "It's pretty straight up: the defendant is insane if he doesn't understand the difference between right and wrong or appreciate the consequences of his actions.
Also last week, Hernandez's parents testified, saying he was a "good child" who played Little League baseball and never gave them any trouble.
Hernandez's father said his son had been a typical boy who played sports and had friends who visited the house. But in the summer of 2003, when the boy was 13, he said he withdrew from friends and family.
Michael's mother, Kathy Hernandez, told a similar story. Her son had friends and enjoyed collecting toy cars and Beanie Babies dolls until things began to change in seventh grade.
Manny Hernandez told the jury that his son "was a "good child who for whatever reason did something horrible, but he was a good child, very loving, very caring."
"He was like the perfect child, kept his room very neat. Gave us no problems," the father added.
He said that in the year before the killing, Michael became withdrawn, shied away from family activities and stayed in the house alone much of the time.
He added Michael began performing repetitive "rituals," staring into the refrigerator, staring at the family's grandfather clock, obsessively arranging his silverware at the dinner table.
His mother, Kathy, also testified she once saw a disturbing image on her son's computer.
"I just remember walking in his room. I don't remember exactly what the picture was but it was gory," adding that she told him to remove it.
When each parent was asked whether they believed Michael was insane, his mother replied, "I think he was then and I think he still is." His father said to the same question, "To do an act of what he's accused of doing, that's just insane."
Both parents proposed taking their son to a psychologist but he objected.
During the entire court proceedings, Gough's mother and father have endured the presentation of bloody murder exhibits and Hernandez's graphic statement to police. In addition to a medical examiner who described the 42 stab wounds and gashes Hernandez inflicted on Gough.
"It's been very difficult for us to sit here," described Gough's father Jorge, "especially for my wife, to sit here and listen to his confession and the things that he did to my son."
If convicted, Hernandez faces mandatory life in prison without parole.
If Hernandez is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be committed to a mental institution for an indeterminate period of time.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Super Bowl Ad: Snickers & Betty White
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments