Category: School Violence

Psychologist disputes teen shooter’s mental health symptoms:

Some interesting testimony out of John Jason McLaughlin’s insanity trial…

A psychologist testified Friday that high school shooter John Jason McLaughlin faked his schizophrenic symptoms months before his murder trial and took his cues from movies and television.

Haven’t I heard that somewhere before?

Prosecutors played a clip from the movie “The Sixth Sense,” in which the young lead character says, “I see dead people,” in claiming that McLaughlin is faking mental illness and that popular culture, movies and TV, have inspired the symptoms he’s reported.

McLaughlin has reported similar hallucinations, according to court documents. He has described dead people dressed like Pilgrims hanging in the detention center where he has been held.

The movie clip showed three dead people hanging in a stairwell at a school attended by the character. The bodies are dressed in old-fashioned clothing. Psychologist Kelly Wilson, a prosecution witness, said she believed McLaughlin got the idea from the movie.

I swear I’ve heard that somewhere before.

Wilson testified that the movie “A Beautiful Mind” may have been where McLaughlin got the idea to say he has seen drug enforcement-type people living in the woods near his Cold Spring home.

“A Beautiful Mind” is about a mathematician with a mental illness who thought he met government agents in remote settings.

Ok, now that sounds really familiar.

Oh yeah, I remember where I’ve heard that before. This very website.

A mother of a student who was at Rocori at the time of the shooting made the Sixth Sense correlation here.

And I had a commenter claiming to be a family member of McLaughlin’s that prattled on about “A Beautiful Mind” here and here. I wondered why. Now I know.

Wilson, with the Minnesota State Security Hospital in St. Peter, also noted that McLaughlin has said his hands turn tie-dye colors underwater. She said this idea has been featured on the long-running TV cartoon “The Simpsons.”

I don’t remember that episode. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Asked if there’s evidence McLaughlin has seen the movies and the TV show, prosecutor David Voigt said, “stay tuned.”

The prosecution plans to call witnesses that will say that the teen has seen the movies and TV show. On Friday, Wilson testified that McLaughlin’s family owns the movie “A Beautiful Mind.” It also appears as though McLaughlin has seen both movies at the detention center.

Well, well, well.

As Mr. Voigt said…” Stay tuned”.

Witness Claims McLaughlin Faked Mental Disorder:

Dr. Katheryn Cranbrook testified today for the prosecution in the insanity trial of John Jason McLaughlin, and guess what she thinks. She thinks that McLaughlin is faking it. Who would have thought…

Katheryn Cranbrook said she originally diagnosed McLaughlin with an emerging psychotic disorder in 2003, but now believes he was faking his symptoms.

Cranbrook interviewed McLaughlin in November 2003, two months after the teenager took a gun to Rocori High School in Cold Spring and killed two students. She interviewed him again last month in anticipation of his murder trial.

Observations of McLaughlin in a juvenile detention facility, security hospital and later jail after his Sept. 24, 2003, arrest did not support his reports of hallucinations, Cranbrook testified.

“No one had noticed prior to that day any significant impairment in functioning,” she said in Stearns County District Court.

Cranbook said it was suspicious that McLaughlin’s reports of vision changed over time and between doctors. She said his reports of hearing voices in fifth and then sixth grade was also rare.

Schizophrenia is generally diagnosed in early adulthood and rarely before adolescence. McLaughlin also did not exhibit the lack of hygiene and disorganized speech that are common symptoms of schizophrenia, she said.

“He was organized. He was rational. He was very reality-based,” Cranbrook said.

You don’t say.

I received an e-mail today from someone who says they were at John Jason McLaughlin’s trial yesterday…

Dr. Hackett taped her sessions with Jason and they were introduced as evidence yesterday and she didn’t want that to happen, she was visibly upset and said “NO”. It wasn’t a matter of confidentiality because that was already waived. We think there was something on those tapes she didn’t want heard. We know she suggested a lot of stuff to Jason and he just answered her questions yes or no. She didn’t ask open-ended questions.

Interesting.

For more on Dr. Hackett, you can go here.

Rocori shooter’s mental state scrutinized: (Log in info)

Forensic psychiatric evaluation for Jason McLaughlin: (Log in info)

The first article is about the testimony heard in John Jason McLaughlin’s insanity trial. The second is the psychological evaluation of McLaughlin by Dr. Maureen Hackett. Read them both at your leisure. I’ll even have the evaluation posted on the second page of this entry because it’s worth saving.

A doctor for the prosecution had this to say…

But on Wednesday, Dr. Katheryn Cranbrook, a state psychologist called by prosecutors, said McLaughlin is faking his illness in part because of the teen’s “fantastical” symptoms and because his illness has gotten better even though he has been off medication for a time this summer.

I have to agree based on what I’ve read. According to Dr. Hackett’s evaluation, McLaughlin started having hallucinations while in the sixth grade. He shot Seth Bartell when he was a freshman in high school. So you’re going to tell me that for 3 years no one noticed anything was wrong with him. I find that very hard to believe.

Insanity phase of McLaughlin’s trial continues: (Log in info)

The insanity phase of John Jason McLaughlin’s trial continues.

The defense…

Dr. Maureen Hackett, a Twin Cities psychiatrist, was on the stand again this morning after testifying all day Monday. She said McLaughlin has schizophrenia. His mental illness was so severe at the time of the shooting that it meets Minnesota’s tough standards for finding that someone is not responsible for his or her criminal actions, she said.

Hackett’s testimony on Monday revealed that McLaughlin has an imaginary companion named Jake who talks to Jason and sometimes appears to him during court proceedings. Hackett also said McLaughlin believes he has interacted with drug enforcement agent types who live in the woods near his Cold Spring home.

The defense also called Dr. Richard Lentz, a Park-Nicollet Clinic psychiatrist, who testified that he believes McLaughlin has schizophrenia. McLaughlin asked for more medication after reportedly seeing dead people in his cell at a detention facility, Lentz said.

The Prosecution…

Prosecutor Bill Klumpp has argued that McLaughlin is faking mental illness and that his hatred and jealousy of more popular students drove him to kill.

This morning, Klumpp said that McLaughlin’s description of his mental illness has been inconsistent and that the teen has given three different versions of when he first began to hear voices.

Klumpp repeatedly pointed out that no one had suspected that McLaughlin was mentally ill before the shootings. He said there are other explanations for symptoms Hackett had described.

And what, I think, is the most damning argument from the prosecution…

Klumpp also noted that Hackett said schizophrenics have problems thinking clearly: McLaughlin was capable of high-level thinking and decided that a stint in prison was worthwhile if he could hurt Seth Bartell,14.

“He did a cost-benefit analysis,” Klumpp said.

I wonder what he thinks of the cost now.

Psychiatrist says McLaughlin heard voices before shooting classmates:

From the “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me Department”…

A former chief psychiatrist at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter says John Jason McLaughlin was schizophrenic and heard a voice urging him to shoot Seth Bartell in 2003.

Dr. Maureen Hackett was the first person to testify on McLaughlin’s behalf Monday afternoon.

Hackett says that while McLaughlin was in custody, the voice he heard became a hallucination named Jake, who was a sort of mentor figure in a trench coat that changed colors and had changing hair to match.

She says McLaughlin was suffering from a major mental illness that affected his reasoning.

Emphasis mine.

If McLaughlin was having these kinds of mental problems, why was he still in school? If he was having hallucinations, I doubt they just manifested on the day of the shooting,

I’m sorry, but this just smacks of a desperate defense team trying to spare their client life in prison.

McLaughlin Found Guilty In Rocori School Shootings:

John Jason McLaughlin has been found guilty in the shooting deaths of Aaron Rollins and Seth Bartell, but it’s not over yet.

According to Minnesota law, the second phase of the trial will determine whether or not McLaughlin was mentally ill at the time of the shootings.

If he is found mentally ill, he could be found not guilty by reason of insanity but could be committed to the state mental hospital. If he is found to be competent, then he’s looking at life in prison without the possibility for parole.

Minnesota does not have the death penalty.