Spokane7
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February 15, 2011 in City
Attorney says defendant was insane while killing
Cole Strandberg is led back to the Spokane County Jail during a court break Monday. Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen ruled that Strandberg is too dangerous to leave unshackled during a hearing to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
(Full-size photo)
Accused crossbow killer Cole K. Strandberg remains mostly docile and focused while on medications. But a psychologist testified Monday that Strandberg always keeps one foot in a mystical, imagined world where others command him to kill to earn respect and he can time travel while he waits for his television-executive wife to take him to Europe.
The hearing in Spokane County Superior Court, expected to last at least two more days, is to determine if Strandberg was insane on Jan. 7, 2008, when prosecutors allege that he used a crossbow to kill 22-year-old Jennifer Bergeron at Strandberg’s apartment at 1304 S. Chestnut St.
The defense argues he was, and wants Judge Tari Eitzen to indefinitely commit him to a mental institution. Prosecutors, however, want him sent to prison for the rest of life with no chance of release.
Dr. Craig Beaver, a neuropsychologist, testified that it was his opinion that Strandberg’s mental illness – which first presented when he was teenager – kept him from understanding that it was morally wrong at the time he admitted killing Bergeron. Detectives later found a list of instructions in his apartment written in blood.
“In the weeks leading up to the event, he was actively trying to fulfill those thoughts about killing someone,” Beaver said, and “that he had a military necessity to prove that he was a man.”
The 24-year-old has described taking rides on a fictitious “circus train” that could transport him between “Las Vegas Washington” and “Boulder Mountain Washington” which “are both places where you can do whatever you want, and killing people is what you do,” Beaver testified. “I think as his brain continues to deal with delusional material … (Strandberg) continues to build this other world.”
If Eitzen determines Strandberg was insane at the time of the killing, he will be civilly committed to state custody until he is cured of his mental illness, which Beaver described as paranoid schizophrenia. If Eitzen instead rules that Strandberg wasn’t insane, he faces trial on May 16 for aggravated first-degree murder where prosecutors will seek to have him sentenced to life imprisonment.
Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Cipolla pointed out that Strandberg spoke with several other mental health professionals and didn’t mention a “mystical world” to them. He asked Beaver if it was possible that Strandberg created the story about delusions to get out of the criminal ramifications for his actions.
“That is a possibility,” Beaver said.
Earlier in the day, Eitzen ruled that Strandberg was too dangerous to remain unshackled in the courtroom following testimony that included descriptions how he punched one correctional deputy in the head, head butted a mental health professional during an interview and how another deputy suffered a broken bone in his neck during a previous effort to extract Strandberg from his cell.
“He is the most violent offender I have personally dealt with in my 20 years,” said Sgt. Thomas Hill, who supervises prisoner transports for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Strandberg’s outbursts were highlighted in a Discovery Channel show, “Behind Bars,” in 2009 that showed footage of the September 2008 incident in which Deputy Dan Leonetti suffered a broken bone in his neck. But several witnesses, including Sgt. Hill, said Strandberg has not acted out since he started his latest medical regimen.
Despite the lack of recent problems transporting Strandberg, Eitzen ruled that he must be restrained in such a way that would not allow the jury to see the shackles to avoid prejudicing the defendant during the murder trial, if one takes place.
The case began Jan. 7, 2008, when Strandberg walked into Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center about 7 a.m. and told employees, “I have a dead body. It’s a girl. I will probably go to prison,” according to court documents.
Cipolla asked whether that statement itself showed that Strandberg had an understanding of right and wrong.
Beaver said he believes Strandberg had a “legal” understanding but his delusions left him no choice on how to act.
“He didn’t appreciate what he did was morally wrong because in his world it was acceptable behavior,” Beaver said. “When he’s stabilized on medication, he is better grounded, but he always has a foot in that delusional world, in my opinion.”
Defense attorney Chris Bugbee asked Beaver to list the tortured history of contacts between his client, who grew up in the Ferry County community of Republic, and mental health professionals and law enforcement.
As early as 2002 Strandberg was telling doctors that he believed people were watching him. He also said he saw shadows and had thoughts about killing other people.
He told one mental health professional in April 2002 that he was hearing voices telling him to steal and kill. Five days later, they found him with a rope around his neck.
Strandberg wrote “devil soldier” and “wolf man” on the wall of his room with his own feces, Beaver said.
Bugbee asked Beaver if it was possible that Strandberg – who reported in 2004 that he saw dead people on the street pointing fingers at him – has been faking his mental illness all this time.
“Anything is possible,” he said, “but at a relatively young age, we are seeing a young man with a pretty serious mental illness. It’s a lifelong condition. You don’t get cured.”
At the end of Monday’s hearing, the team of specially trained transport deputies unhooked Strandberg from a table he had been secured to.
As they led him past Bugbee, the attorney trying to keep him out of prison, Strandberg turned and spat in Bugbee’s face.
Closing Geiger: Wise or worrisome? 
New_Improved_Drywitt2000 on February 15 at 1:18 a.m.
What I am about to say will not endear me with the
liberal/progressive/left-wing community with whom I agree
on 90% of issues.
And puts me at odds with 167 years of legal theory.
But…..
I do not feel that mental competence should be a factor
when it comes to the sentencing of convicted criminals.
Whether some one understands the difference between right and wrong does not alter the effect of one’s actions……and is of no interest to me.
Society has the RIGHT to be protected from the violence of individuals.
Whether that means prison…..or execution.
In my opinion, the mental state of Mr. Strandberg is irrelevent.
The deed is done.
All that needs to be determined is whether or not Mr. Strandberg killed the young woman.
And punishment of the guilty party……and by extention the protection of society……should be the only goal of the criminal justice system.
Scoutster on February 15 at 7:45 a.m.
What do you suppose they should do with a person such as this then, drywitt? Just keep him in prison? Should they treat him while he is there? Why or why not?
The day before he committed these acts he needed treatment for a condition that, it appears, was clearly needing treatment. He didn’t get it because we don’t want to fund mental illness treatment for people who are as sick as anyone you will run into.
The day after he is a criminal and should be, what, executed?
Sounds simple enough, all right.
D Statler on February 15 at 8:24 a.m.
It is amazing to me that we magically found the drugs to stabilize this whacko for trial. Yet, our system is clogged up with the mentally unstable.Most of which,could function in society with alittle help,treatment and medicines. Obviously,there is a limit to where we draw the line.Murder is murder.Strandberg is a murderer and should be treated as such.The jury needs to see this guy as his victim did.Not as a over drugged zombie setting accross from them in a courtroom.Give the medicines he is receiving to somebody that might have a chance at a good life with it. We seem to keep throwing good money after bad in the current system.When will someone at the top display some leadership?
To use judge Eitzen’s own words again. Spokane is victim of “the perfect storm of procedural misconduct”. Now is the time to divert monies from the lockem up system to a reform based system(WORK CAMPS).Make these people show up for work,give them minimum wage and stablization medications (treatment) if needed.Install the needed work ethics missing.Get something done and accomplished for all the tax dollars we are spending! Our jail is big enough.Build work camps,ask DSHS for assistance doing it!
Orange on February 15 at 10:24 a.m.
The jailer looks more nervous than the accused. Yes, you must chain him to the desk.
Shadedmuse on February 15 at 10:48 a.m.
Las Vegas Washington? Iis that near Yaki-Vegas? or Spo-Compton?
Patanjali on February 15 at 11:13 a.m.
I understand the emotions behind your comments Drywitt. The science of mental health is difficult for me to understand as well. Obviously a dangerous person needs to be kept away out of society, and I agree that the function of prison is both to protect and punish. It is not, and has not been about rehabilitation. I think it should be about rehabilitation as many prisoners will get out and when they do they need to be able to make a life without committing crimes. Drug addiction, mental health, poverty, gang and other crime causing issues need to be addressed. One final point, the death penalty is not a deterant to capital crime, costs more to administer than life in prison and leads to the execution of innocent people. Washington is currently considering the abolition of the death penalty and I have written to my representatives in support of this bill.
deacon46 on February 15 at 11:17 a.m.
So what about his mental state. He obviously can’t function in society. I am only interested in societies well being not his. Lock him up for life or end his life I don’t care other than lets focus on societies needs and not on him and quickly.
Orange on February 15 at 11:20 a.m.
What I am about to say will not endear me with the
liberal/progressive/left-wing community with whom I agree
on 90% of issues.
Not sure politics was the topic. Doesn’t take much to press the button around here.
Shadedmuse on February 15 at 11:28 a.m.
It’s time we replace jurys with five guys with pistols and a magic 8 ball.
New_Improved_Drywitt2000 on February 15 at 12:55 p.m.
Scout,
He faces the possibility of trial on a charge of aggravated first degree murder.
First degree murder has traditionally been one of the crimes for which the death penalty is imposed.
So the short answer to your question would be:
Yes….if convicted on this charge…..I feel that execution would be warranted.
Is that any more cruel and unusual then locking him up in a small room…..possibly for the rest of his life??
Is it any more cruel and unusual than forcibly medicating him for the rest of his life so that he would not endanger corrections officers or other inmates??
No easy answers here.
If you want to call for a significant increase in spending on mental health screening and treatment…..if would willingly support it with my tax dollars.
But in this case….it is too late.
billysuckit on February 15 at 7:49 p.m.
kill him problem solved