Sanity, LSD key trial issues in stabbing death

By Matt Pordum

Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004 | 9:23 a.m.

The central issue in the trial of a young man charged with killing his friend in October 2001 while under the influence of LSD is the defendant's sanity, prosecutors and the defense attorney told jurors Wednesday.

Michael Kane, 21, is accused of stabbing 23-year-old John Trowbridge several times while the two were listening to the radio and playing "fighting" video games in a house on the 5200 block of Koa Avenue, near Flamingo Road and Nellis Boulevard on Oct. 22, 2001.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane, who is not related to the defendant, and Deputy Public Defender Dan Silverstein told the jury during opening arguments there was no doubt that the defendant, who was 18 at the time of the killing, was the man who stabbed Trowbridge six times, left the scene and surrendered to police hours later.

Ed Kane and Silverstein, however, each had a different explanation for the jury as to why the killing was committed.

Silverstein said the "only rational explanation" for Michael Kane, who at the time had a job, friends, family and a life would commit such an act was because "he was out of his mind."

Silverstein said his client had a history of mental illness in both his mother's and father's sides of his family, and according to doctors scheduled to testify on behalf of the prosecution and the defense, Kane also was mentally ill.

Silverstein said no "bad blood" existed between Michael Kane and Trowbridge, and try as they might, the jurors weren't going to "find a rational explanation or motive because this was not the act of a rational individual."

Silverstein said no deliberation or premeditation existed within Kane's actions, saying the only logical conclusion the jury could reach was "insanity."

Silverstein said while his friends were playing a video game that features fighting and monsters, the defendant "felt the walls were closing in, it was hard to breathe and there was a monster in every shadow in the small room."

Silverstein said Kane couldn't distinguish between reality and the world that his mental problems, coupled with the LSD, had created. He "honestly believed he was in mortal danger" when he grabbed the knife and stabbed Trowbridge.

The extent of Kane's mental problems, however, could be better seen by his actions since Trowbridge's death, according to Silverstein. He said upon being placed in custody at Clark County Detention Center, Kane "attacked the guards, who were 100 to 150 pounds bigger" than he.

"He knew the best way to get beat up in jail was to attack the guards," Silverstein said. "He was trying to punish himself."

After being restrained in bed and unable to attack the guards, Silverstein said, Kane still found a way to punish himself. He said Kane began "chewing holes into his own shoulder. He began gnawing on himself."

Silverstein said after being declared incompetent to stand trial in 2002, Kane was sent to Lake's Crossing, the state mental hospital in Sparks. He said that on the plane ride to the facility Kane said he believed the "guards accompanying him on the flight were terrorists who were poisoning the air in the plane." Silverstein said Kane went to the plane's bathroom where he "stuck his head in the toilet because he thought it was the only way to get safe air."

Silverstein told the jury Kane is only able to sit before them in court because he is on "heavy" medication.

Ed Kane, the prosecutor, said although he acknowledged that the defendant "does have mental problems" he was not insane at the time of the stabbing.

The prosecutor said Kane told police he killed Trowbridge "because he thought John (Trowbridge) was about to do him some harm."

Ed Kane said the jury's decision will need to be based on the instructions District Judge Jennifer Togliatti would give them in regards to what makes a defendant legally sane and whether the evidence presented adheres to those instructions, but those instructions won't be given to the jury until after the case has concluded.

Ed Kane said that in the end, when the rules are known and followed, the only appropriate verdict would be first-degree murder.