Arizona man accused of decapitating wife emits howl in court

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Arizona man accused of decapitating wife emits howl in court

PAUL DAVENPORT, Associated Press
Updated 7:19 pm, Monday, August 3, 2015

PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix man who authorities say decapitated his wife and two dogs and gouged his own eye out let out a moaning howl in court after a prosecutor told a judge what the man had allegedly done, according to video released Monday.

Kenneth Wakefield appeared in court Saturday after being released from a hospital and booked into jail on suspicion of murder and animal cruelty. He had a large bandage in place of a missing hand, which police said he had cut off.

A judge set bond for Wakefield at $2 million after a prosecutor called the 43-year-old, who has a history of mental illness, a danger to the community.

. . .

Records from a state psychiatric review board indicate Wakefield spent a decade in a state mental hospital after stabbing a relative in 2003. He was found "guilty, except insane" on charges of attempted second-degree murder in the attack, a verdict that spared him prison.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Arizona-man-accused-of-decapitating-wife-emits-6422027.php

[udbcrzy2]

1. Wow, what a strange story n/t

[notadmblnd]

2. Whoa!

[giftedgirl77]

3. I'm going to say he wasn't quite ready to be released

after the first guilty but insane charge.

[Helen Borg]

4. That is a close one. Is he insane or not?

[cindyperry]

5. profoundly

disturbed individual

[dembotoz]

6. In some states insanity is damn neigh impossible as a defense

[Vinca]

7. Yike! There's "insane" and then there's "INSANE."

[Orrex]

8. In other words, now there are 18 contendors for the Republican nomination

[LuvNewcastle]

9. How did he get a woman to marry him?

I've known plenty of nice people who wanted to get married and couldn't find anybody, and this guy has a wifey-poo. Weird world.

[Historic NY]

10. Well she wasn't a Saint either.....

The mental health system in this country has gone to hell thanks to Raygun. There was treatment and confinement at the institutional level. Some people never will function in a real world environment without constant supervision and others won't take medications that allow them to integrate. In my state we have Kendra's Law which made much progress in treating mental health issues using the combined resources of family and legal (courts) to require treatment. My former boss on my job was a big proponent of this after dealing with their own issues of an adult child with severe mental health issues.

http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/kendras-law/kendras-law-overview.html

Kendra’s Law was initially proposed in 1999, by families of individuals with the most serious mental illnesses as a way to help their loved ones while simultaneously keeping society safer. Kendra's Law does two things:

It allows courts -after extensive due process- to order a certain group of narrowly defined individuals with serious mental illness who already have a past history of multiple arrests, incarcerations or needless hospitalizations to accept treatment as a condition for living in the community. Before Kendra's Law, the law required people so ill they refuse treatment to become dangerous before they can be required to accept treatment. Families felt the law should prevent dangerous behavior, rather than require it.

Kendra's Law allows judges to order the recalcitrant mental health system to serve people with serious mental illness, rather than cherry picking the easiest to treat for admission.

[LuvNewcastle]

11. That looks like a good law.

I know a few people I could talk to about that. Getting people to take their meds makes all the difference in the world. Any program that gets sick people the medicine they need sounds good to me. This is an area that needs serious reform as soon as possible.

[EL34x4]

14. She was as insane as he was

Tried to kill her own son. She also spent a decade in a mental hospital.

[turbinetree]

12. And just think.......................

the states unusually gut and cut mentally hospitals to cover budget issues----------------look at what Ronald Reagan did in California---------------now what are they (Arizona) going to do?

[cosmicone]

13. He should never have been out of a mental hospital n/t

[dbackjon]

15. He never should have been let out of the mental hospital

[secondvariety]

16. "A danger to the community".

That's putting it mildly. This guy and his wife were every community's nightmare.

[geek tragedy]

17. Jesus, the death penalty might be more merciful than

having this guy live out his days in a psych ward.

Either he lives in this state, or he regains his sanity and realizes what he's done, and gets to live with that.

[olddots]

18. yeah maybe he just needs better meds

why did big pharma become big pharma during the Reagan Years ?

There may be no cure for mental illness but we can't make believe it doesn't exist .

[tomm2thumbs]

19. who is the Sheriff of Maricopa County anyway?

hmmmmm