 
|
|||||||||||||
              
|
Baumhammers incompetent, 2 more doctors say Judge expected to rule today on request for hospitalization Thursday, May 18, 2000 By Jim McKinnon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Two more psychiatrists testified yesterday that Richard Baumhammers, the Mt. Lebanon man charged with killing five people and wounding a sixth in a shooting rampage April 28, is incompetent to stand trial.
Stile testified that Baumhammers suffers from psychotic thought disorder, a general term that means Baumhammers is out of touch with reality and is not mentally competent.
Ness did not agree with Martone that Baumhammers is paranoid schizophrenic but said he believes Baumhammers is paranoid.
Common Pleas Judge Lawrence J. O'Toole will reconvene the hearing at 8:45 a.m. today to rule on whether Baumhammers should be sent to Mayview State Hospital for treatment until he is well enough to participate in court proceedings or whether he already is sane and should face a coroner's inquest pending trial.
Baumhammers' charges include five counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, arson, reckless endangerment, ethnic intimidation and criminal mischief.
The five who were killed included Baumhammers' female Jewish neighbor, whose house was set on fire, and four men -- one from India, immigrants from China and Vietnam and a black martial arts student from Aliquippa.
A sixth shooting victim, Sandip Patel, 25, of Plum, remains in critical condition at Mercy Hospital.
O'Toole has hinted that he is prepared to rule that Baumhammers is not competent at this time, based on his inability to assist in his defense and his apparent lack of understanding of the charges that he faces.
However, Deputy District Attorney Edward J. Borkowski pursued a line of questioning yesterday that suggests that Baumhammers is faking his mental state.
Borkowski zeroed in on parts of each of the doctors' reports where they asked Baumhammers about the charges against him. In each instance, the defendant acknowledged that he was charged with homicide and ethnic intimidation, and once he mentioned arson.
But each time the psychiatrists pressed him for details about the charges or circumstances involved in his arrest, he would not answer, referring them to his attorney, William Difenderfer.
During those separate clinical interviews, Baumhammers told the doctors that he had not been arrested before, although police in Paris, France, said Baumhammers was arrested and briefly detained in October for slapping a woman bartender because he thought she was Jewish.
Stile and Ness testified that Baumhammers stiffened and became even less responsive when they pressed him on issues about his having been in trouble before or about the charges pending against him.
Ness said that Baumhammers' reaction was, "eerie, very unnerving. There was a robot-like quality of his affect.
"He became stiffer, a lowered voice and he looked at me differently," Ness continued. "He appeared to be struggling to contain rage."
Baumhammers did not look the part as he strode into the courtroom yesterday, his hands cuffed behind him, his imposing frame surrounded by Allegheny County sheriff's deputies.
"Good morning, counselors," he said, business-like, as he approached his defense team.
At the defense table seated between Difenderfer and defense attorney Lee Rothman, Baumhammers seemed attentive. He remained mostly quiet, save for a few whispers between him and his lawyers, sometimes with his hands or his arms folded.
His goatee, which had been neatly cropped on the day that he was arrested, is becoming overshadowed by his unshaven beard.
|
||||||||||||
