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Day 5 of hearing: Psychiatrist says Tyler Hadley had 'severe mental illness'

Treasure Coast Newspapers (Stuart, FL) - 3/15/2014

March 15--FORT PIERCE -- A mental health expert who spent all Friday testifying at Tyler Hadley's sentencing hearing said when Hadley beat his parents to death in 2011, he was suffering from a "major depression with psychotic features."

Dr. Wade Myers, a psychiatrist at Brown University who specializes in child and forensic psychiatry and who conducted a psychiatric evaluation of Hadley, said the then 17-year-old had been operating for some time under the delusion of a "severe mental illness" caused by depression and worsened by obsessive thoughts of killing his parents and himself.

Myers said Hadley, now 20, had a long history of being treated with medications to combat anxiety and depression. And on July 16, 2011, when he used a hammer to slay his mother, Mary Jo, 47, and then his father, Blake, 54, he should have had Celexa in his system, an antidepressant he'd been taking for more than a month.

Celexa, Myers told Hadley's lawyers, could have "revved up" the obsessive, homicidal thoughts that plagued Hadley for months before the murders. His condition was worsened, Myers said, by Hadley's use of alcohol, marijuana and other street drugs.

"We know he's having homicidal ideation toward his parents for at least two or three months before this happened," Myers said. "The taking of (illegal) drugs further threw off his brain chemistry and made him more vulnerable to his mental illness and ultimately to him acting violently."

Myers testified that Hadley admitted stealing money from his parents a lot of times. Myers said Hadley told him he committed a burglary as young as age 13, and several times robbed people with his friends, some who were armed with a weapon. Hadley told Myers robbing people was one of the "riskiest" things he'd ever done.

Hadley's delusional thinking made him sad for no reason, Myers said, in addition to being moody, irritable and unable to care about anything. Myers said Hadley was suspicious of others and felt he wasn't loved.

During one evaluation, Hadley told Myers before the murders, he considered using as a weapon a pair of garden sheers, a hatchet and a kitchen knife.

Myers' testimony and that of another psychiatrist scheduled for Monday could be key to Hadley's defense and its efforts to convince a judge to spare him life behind bars without parole.

Hadley, who last month pleaded no contest to two counts of first-degree murder, can't be sentenced to death because he was a juvenile when he killed. A judge may order him to prison for life with or without parole, or Hadley could be ordered to serve a specific term of years in prison.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl, who is seeking the maximum punishment against Hadley, spent hours Friday pouring over reports from mental health experts who have evaluated him.

He repeatedly asked Myers if it was possible Hadley lied while being evaluated to manipulate the outcome. Bakkedahl also suggested Hadley wasn't driven to kill by mental illness, but because he was angry at his parents for trying to stop his lying, stealing, illegal drug use and unwillingness to attend school.

Bakkedahl asked Myers if Hadley ever lied to him or crafted responses to influence his diagnosis.

"It's possible," Myers said. "But I saw no clinical proof of that."

He asked Myers to tell the court how Hadley described killing first his mother and then his father.

"He stood there 40 seconds and (she) finally turned around and she saw him with the hammer with two hands. She took a deep breath and I hit her and she may have said, 'Why.' She screamed, 'Ow, ow,' " Myers read aloud. "First he hit her on the top of the head and he kept hitting her and dad heard her screaming and he asked, 'What's wrong?' Mom was on the floor by that time and he's not sure if she was unconscious or not, and then he chased after his dad into the bedroom.

"His dad did not fight back," Myers continued. "(Hadley) had that much rage. ... 'Tyler, please don't do this,' his father said."

Court resumes at 9:30 a.m. Monday.

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