Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Doctors say man acquitted of murder no longer mentally ill

Doctors have determined that a man who was acquitted of murdering a 23-year-old by reason of insanity is no longer mentally ill, a diagnosis that could soon put him back on the streets as a free man.

Michael Kane was under the influence of LSD in October 2001 when he stabbed 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.

In September 2004 a Clark County jury acquitted Kane of the murder charge by reason of insanity and under state law Kane was ordered to undergo treatment at Lake's Crossing, the state mental facility in Sparks with the understanding that if he recovered, his case would be reconsidered by the court.

District Judge Jennifer Togliatti is expected to determine at a hearing in mid-July whether to release Kane back into society or reject the doctors findings and order Kane to undergo continued treatment and be evaluated again in six months.

Robbin Trowbridge-Benko, the victim's mother who watched quietly through Kane's trial, is now ready to do whatever it takes to make sure Kane doesn't become a free man.

"There needs to be a nail put in his coffin, I don't want to go through this every six months," Trowbridge-Benko said.

She blames legislators who crafted the law. "I'm going to lay the mistake at the feet they belong, not at my doorstep, but theirs," she said.

Trowbridge-Benko said she had contacted every major news organization in the country about was has happened.

"Hell hath no fury like a ticked-off mom," she said.

Not guilty by reason of insanity is a rarely used plea that was reinstated during the 2003 Legislature. The Legislature had abolished the plea in 1995, but in 2001 the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the law violated the due process rights of the defendant.

The case involved Frederick Finger, who tried to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity when he was charged with fatally stabbing his mother, Franziska Brassaw, with a kitchen knife in Las Vegas in April 1996.

The District Court stopped Finger from entering that plea because it had been abolished by the Legislature in 1995. Finger instead pleaded "guilty to second-degree murder, but mentally ill." He was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 10 years.

On appeal, Finger argued that Nevada's abolishment of insanity as an affirmative defense violated his right to due process as protected by the Eighth and 14th Amendments and the Nevada Constitution.

The state's high court reasoned that barring an insanity defense could result in a person being convicted of a crime even though he lacked the mental capacity to form the intent to commit the crime. That would violate the due process clauses of the state and federal constitutions, the court ruled.

Under the Nevada Supreme Court ruling, Finger was permitted to enter a new plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and go to trial.

Finger, however, chose to waive his right to withdraw his guilty plea because he had only 4 1/2 years more to serve in prison before being eligible for parole. Finger is currently serving his sentence at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center and is eligible for parole on April 8, 2006.

Trowbridge-Benko said Kane might have been "psychotic or evil, but not paranoid schizophrenic."

"Either the doctors were wrong then or now," Trowbridge-Benko said. "Someone was wrong and that decision might put a murdering thug back on the street, without a record. He'll be on the same playing field as you and me."

Kane's attorneys argued he suffered a drug "induced psychosis." In April 2002 he was deemed incompetent to stand trial and was sent to Lake's Crossing, the state's mental facility in Sparks where he began taking medication.

Doctors later determined in November 2002 that Kane was competent to stand trial.

After being committed to Lake's Crossing after the jury's verdict in September 2004 Kane continued to take medication, but in December doctors stopped medicating him and subsequently determined he was "no longer mentally ill."

Trowbridge-Benko said immediately after the jury's verdict she contacted Ben Graham, who serves as the liaison between the Legislature and the district attorney's office, but now she would "bypass him and go straight to the Legislature."

"I'm going to call and e-mail every legislator and while they might not call me or write me back, I'll keep going. I will be heard. I have nothing to lose now and I don't care who gets mad or whose toes I step on."

Trowbridge-Benko has made some suggestions as to how the law could be changed. She said "maybe a verdict by law and not of fact should be decided by a judge." Another option she suggests is if the state case law "says a jury can come back with not guilty by legal insanity, maybe there should also be an option of guilty by legal insanity."

Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee said that since doctors have determined Kane is "not mentally ill and at this point it's safe for him to return to society, obviously it's the best thing that could happen to Michael (Kane)."

Coffee said he understood Trowbridge-Benko was "upset and still grieving" the loss of her son "but there were two victims in this case, in a lot of ways."

"Michael (Kane) was a victim of mental illness and drug-induced psychosis," Coffee said.

Coffee did say he had never heard of a case like Kane's, where a person is found not guilty by reason of insanity and then deemed to suffer from no mental illness after the verdict and set free.

"It's a rarity," Coffee said. "I mean, receiving a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict is rare, but then having the defendant found to be free of mental illness and released is just that much rarer."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane, who is no relation to Michael Kane, would not offer his opinions of the doctor's determination, the not guilty by reason of insanity defense and the law that goes with it, saying only "we'll take it to the judge and see what happens."

During his closing arguments at trial Ed Kane said none of the mental health experts who testified were qualified to understand how narrow the legal definition of insanity is.

Ed Kane said Trowbridge never posed a threat to his killer, and even if the jury found Michael Kane delusional, Michael Kane failed to act as a reasonable person would have if they were in the same situation.

During opening statements at Michael Kane's trial, Deputy Public Defender Dan Silverstein said the extent of Michael Kane's mental problems could be better understood by looking at his actions since Trowbridge's death. Silverstein said upon being placed in custody at Clark County Detention Center, Michael Kane attacked the guards, and after being restrained in bed and unable to attack them he began "chewing holes into his own shoulder. He began gnawing on himself."

After being declared incompetent to stand trial in 2002, Michael Kane was sent to Lake's Crossing.

Silverstein 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 said Kane was only able to sit in court because he was heavily medicated.

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