Murder suspect’s mother rejoiced in his conversion

Wednesday, March 9, 2005 | 8:46 a.m.

The mother of a 21-year-old man accused of killing his pregnant sister and his grandparents told a jury that she knew the day before the slayings that her son needed help with mental issues, but she decided to put it off until she could take him to church first.

Rae Pattison, who works part-time in the convention industry and has her own ministry in which she mentors foster teenagers, also said she had rejoiced when her son told her he had "baptized himself" in a toilet at the county jail.

The day before Dante Pattison shot his sister and their grandparents with a Russian assault rifle in February 2001, his friends had called Rae Pattison telling her they were bringing her son to her because "something is wrong with him," she testified.

In the hours before Dante Pattison arrived at his mother's house, Pattison told people he was on a mission from God, which resulted in Pattison baptizing himself in toilets and a hotel pool.

Rae Pattison said her son arrived that Friday wearing only a poncho with no shoes or socks. She said his "forehead looked stretched and his eyes seemed to go way out to his temples."

She said her son told her he needed help and although her initial thought was to take him to Monte Vista hospital, she decided she would take him to church first, on that Sunday. Any medical attention could wait until Monday.

Dante Pattison had sat absolutely still and absent of expression throughout jury selection and previous testimony, but while his mother was on the witness stand, he squirmed in his seat and rubbed his eyes hard. He didn't make eye contact with her during her testimony, but sat silently with a bottle of water and a copy of the Bible in front of him.

His mother said that in the days before the killings he had told her that while he had been in jail for his erratic activity the week prior to the slayings, "a light shined down on him and God spoke to him and told him he had a job for him, something for him to do, but God didn't tell him what it was. He told me he baptized himself in the toilet."

Rae Pattison, who described herself as a very active member of an area evangelical church, said she was "happy and joyful" upon hearing of her son's experience in jail, saying "he now believed in God and Jesus." She compared it to "a conversion experience."

When her son told her he was going to preach and save the world, her response was "hallelujah," she said.

But, Rae Pattison said, her son's newfound interest in religion "became obsessive."

She said she told him, "Now that you're saved, the devil is going to attack, not by flesh or blood or what you can see or feel, but by what you can't see. The darkness of the world, it will come and attack you."

She said she pointed her son to a passage in the Book of Ephesians, which says believers need to "put on the full armor of God and carry the sword, the word of God."

That seemed to encourage Dante Pattison and seemed to ease his nerves, his mother said.

But on Feb. 24, 2001, Dante Pattison shot to death his sister, 32-year-old Carrie Adric-Pattison, who was seven months' pregnant, and their grandparents, Yoshio Kato, 82, and Sally Kato, 75. He is charged with murder in connection with those killings and could be sentenced to death if convicted as charged.

He is also charged with manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon for the death of Adric-Pattison's unborn child.

His defense attorneys argue Pattison is suffering from schizophrenia and is not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecutors have implied that Pattison's strange behavior was a result of his use of methamphetamine.

Rae Pattison said her son had led an ideal childhood on the beaches of Hawaii and was an average student until the third grade when teachers and the principal told her Dante Pattison wouldn't engage in class and might have attention deficit disorder.

She said she was fearful about allowing her son to be medicated. She said she believed he was "just slow."

She said her son had great respect for his grandparents and of all the members of the family Dante Pattison and his sister had the closest relationship.

Dr. Thomas Kinsora, a clinical neuropsychologist, said after interviewing Pattison on four occasions, administering numerous tests and reviewing the evaluations performed on Pattison by other doctors he believes Pattison suffers from schizophrenia.

"He (Pattison) was completely out of his mind (when he killed his sister and grandparents) and was breaking down in the period before it," Kinsora said.

The doctor was less confident in offering his opinion as to whether Pattison's condition met the burden required to be not guilty by reason of insanity in Nevada. Over the objections of prosecutors, Kinsora said although he was only "remotely" familiar with the legal requirements of such a defense, he believes Pattison meets those standards.

Kinsora said he believed Pattison really believed he was in imminent danger of being harmed by his sister and grandparents, who in his mind were assassins prepared to kill him.

Although testimony during the three-day-old trial had suggested Pattison believed God was talking to him, and that Pattison believed he was receiving messages from God through the television and radio, Kinsora said Pattison told him he received a message from actor Richard Gere on the day of the killings.

The doctor said Pattison told him he was sitting in a bedroom watching television with his sister flipping channels between the movies "Mary Poppins" and "Pretty Woman," when suddenly the co-star of that latter movie had a message for Pattison.

"He thought Richard Gere was speaking directly to him during the movie and had told him to go to the Regency Hotel," Kinsora said. "That's why he got dressed in nice clothes. He thought he was going to the airport to go to the Regency Hotel."

Kinsora was pressed by Chief Deputy District Attorney March DiGiacomo about how he came to his conclusions, saying his evaluation conducted some 30 months after the killings differed drastically from those done in the days immediately after the incident and those performed later at Lake's Crossing, the state mental facility in Sparks.

Kinsora said he believed Pattison was more comfortable with him and wasn't being truthful to the other doctors who evaluated him.

The prosecution is scheduled to call roughly four doctors to testify as rebuttal witnesses today.

DiGiacomo also wondered how Kinsora could rule out Pattison had committed the killings while under methamphetamine-induced psychosis. The doctor said no drug tests or evidence existed to suggest Pattison had been using methamphetamine on either the day of or the days leading up to the killings.

Kinsora said it was his opinion that Pattison had used methamphetamine only a few times.

DiGiacomo pointed out, however, Pattison told other doctors he used the drug once a week during the year of the killings and almost every day when he was 17.