Article published Mar 12, 2010
Waterford man who stabbed mother committed for up to 15 years
By Karen Florin
A New London judge ruled this morning that a Quaker Hill man who stabbed his elderly mother last year and chased her into a neighbor’s home should be confined for up to 15 years at the Whiting Forensic Institute.
James C. Perkins, 37, suffers from chronic paranoid schizophrenia and has a history of not taking his medication, according to court testimony. He has been at the state’s maximum security psychiatric hospital in Middletown since January, when Judge Susan B. Handy found him not guilty by reason of insanity. He sat hunched over in a New London courtroom this morning while a social worker testified about his condition.
Perkins was charged with first-degree assault and first-degree burglary after he stabbed his mother, Edith Perkins, at their James Avenue home with a kitchen knife on Jan. 17, 2009.
According to court testimony, he followed Mrs. Perkins when she ran to a neighbor’s home seeking safety and broke through an interior door to get in. He chased his mother out the back door and back to the street, where he continued to stab her. He struggled with police, who used a Taser and pepper spray on him without success.
Edith Perkins suffered two stab wounds to the neck and three defensive wounds on her left arm.
Attorney Peter E. Scillieri sought the commitment to a mental hospital for Perkins, who has a history of mental illness. Prosecutor Paul J. Narducci did not object to the so-called “NGRI,” or not guilty by reason of insanity defense.
Handy listened to evidence in January and found the state had proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Perkins committed the crimes. She found him not guilty, however, because she said the defense had proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Perkins “lacked substantial capacity, as a result of mental disease or defect, either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to control his conduct within the requirements of the law.”
Perkins returned to court today so that the judge could review his progress and determine how long he should be confined. He faced confinement of up to 40 years based on the crimes he committed. He will be under the care of the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board, and may eventually be allowed to transfer to a lower level facility or be released to the community with supervision.
Social worker Susan McKinley, part of a team of clinicians that evaluated Perkins at Whiting, testified that Perkins has been cooperative with his treatment and that he is “mortified” by the events of January 2009. She said he appears to have made every effort to hold his life together and not to be a further burden to his parents, who are both ill.
“This court finds the release of James Perkins would cause a danger to himself and others,” Handy wrote in her decision. She said that the Psychiatric Security Review Board would notify Perkins’ mother and the neighbors who were victimized of any hearings concerning his confinement status.
PSRB Tribune 