Detective: Kane still dangerous

By Matt Pordum

Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

The detective who interviewed Michael Kane said if Kane is released from the state's mental facility and placed back into society he "will strike again, as he has tasted blood and likes it."

A Clark County jury acquitted Kane of the 2001 murder of 23-year-old John Trowbridge by reason of insanity in September 2004. Kane was committed to Lake's Crossing, the state's mental facility in Sparks, to receive treatment for his alleged paranoid schizophrenia.

In December 2004 doctors took Kane off his medication and roughly a week later determined Kane no longer suffered from mental illness. The diagnosis means Kane could be back on the streets as a free man as early as August.

On Aug. 5 District Judge Jennifer Togliatti is scheduled to rule whether to release Kane back into society or order that he be sent back to Lake's Crossing for further evaluations.

Metro Patrol Sgt. Brent Becker, who was a homicide detective for seven years, has experience with suspects claiming to be insane.

He has previously interviewed Kane and Frederick Finger, a convicted murderer whose case served as the basis for the Legislature to reinstate the "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense.

He cannot understand how the jury or doctors ever thought Kane was mentally ill to begin with.

"I can't believe those doctors determined he (Kane) was not mentally capable of carrying this act out," Becker said. "To think Kane was insane is insane."

Becker said Kane was "lucid" when he was questioned after the killing and said he "knew what he did was wrong, he admitted it that day."

The detective said he noticed a change in Kane's demeanor during the interview when he told Kane "You aren't going to do well in prison." Becker said Kane began saying he "was going to be raped in prison."

"I got the impression he knew what would happen if he went to prison, if he was part of the general population," Becker said. "I think the realization he would be preyed upon in prison made him start trying to figure out a way to protect himself and that's when he decided acting crazy was the way to go."

During Kane's trial it was revealed that Kane attacked the guards upon being placed in custody at Clark County Detention Center. After being restrained in bed and being unable to attack the guards he began "chewing holes into his own shoulder. He began gnawing on himself."

It was said at trial that during a plane ride to Lake's Crossing, Kane said he believed the "guards accompanying him on the flight were terrorists who were poisoning the air in the plane." 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," according to his attorneys.

Becker, however, said Kane's behavior could have been an act.

"Chewing on oneself is bizarre, but people do strange things to get out of trouble," Becker said. "He starting chewing on himself because he knew what his fate was going to be in prison, he knew he had to figure something out."

Becker said Kane didn't display any behavior during his interviews with Becker that came even remotely close to that shown by the convicted murderer Finger when he interviewed him.

"Fred (Finger), if you were to say a guy just looks crazy, he's that guy," Becker said. "Finger, when you looked at him and talked to him you could just tell he just didn't get it. He couldn't even acknowledge basic questions, he had more than his share of issues."

Becker said he never felt the Nevada Supreme Court's decision on Finger's case was wrong.

"Fred Finger and Michael Kane are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum," Becker said. "In the way they answered questions and in how they both presented themselves. Bottom line -- Fred Finger is insane. Michael Kane is not and never was."

Becker said he hopes the Legislature will take another look at the law, "because I don't think anyone up there planned for this to happen. This is a big mistake."

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.

That case involved 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 ruled he couldn't enter the plea because the Legislature abolished it in 1995. The case eventually went to the state's highest court. It ruled that barring the insanity defense could result in a person being convicted of a crime even if he or she lacked the mental capacity to form intent to commit the crime.

After not being able to make an insanity plea, Finger pleaded "guilty to second-degree murder, but mentally ill." He was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 10 years.

Under the Nevada Supreme Court ruling, Finger was permitted to enter a 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.

Becker said Kane's drug use, most notably the traces of LSD found in his system after the crime, was certainly a factor in the alleged crime but not the sole reason.

"I admit drugs are his (Kane) problem, but he decided to use drugs," Becker said. "No one sat on his chest and forced him to ingest the LSD. How none of the doctors could say that in no way did LSD play a role is beyond me."

After Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee was informed of Becker's take on the Kane case, he asked, "Where did he (Becker) get his medical degree?"

"The best doctors who examined him all came to the same conclusion, that he (Kane) was mentally ill," Coffee said.

Coffee's recollection of Kane's statements to Becker differed drastically. He said Kane told the detective "I thought I was defending myself."

"The jury heard the tape and it's their opinion that matters, but he (Becker) can complain about it all he wants," Coffee said. "Twelve jurors and every doctor involved in the case said Michael (Kane) was mentally ill."

Coffee said there are "lucid intervals amongst those who suffer from mental illness."

"What we have here is a break from reality at the time of the incident and during the interview with detectives he was more lucid and back in touch with reality," he said.

In response to whether or not Kane -- if released -- could suffer another break from reality and kill again as Becker has suggested, Coffee said firmly "No."

"There are more dangerous people on the streets than Michael Kane," Coffee said. "You can't protect the world by keeping everybody locked up."

Coffee said the fact Kane's drug use was not made an issue by prosecutors at Kane's trial was because the prosecutors "made a choice to prove first-degree murder and made it all or nothing by not pushing the drug angle."

The public defender said he has always contended Kane suffered a "drug induced psychosis." He said prosecutors didn't submit to drugs playing a role in the murder because the drugs could have reduced the verdict to second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or even involuntary manslaughter.

Coffee said he was dismayed over how people are reacting to the fact Kane might be released, because no one has done anything underhanded, but instead followed the law.

"The insanity defense is all about a person's mental capacity at the time of the offense and not at the time of the trial," Coffee said. "The jury said he was not guilty by reason of insanity, they ruled he wasn't culpable in the killing. What has happened since is not about punishment, but treatment."

Coffee stressed Kane didn't simply go up to Lake's Crossing and receive treatment for seven months and is now cured because of it. He said Kane has "received four years of treatment since he was incarcerated."

In April 2002 Kane 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."