March 08, 2008
Vet using war stress defense found not guilty of murder
By LAUREN SONIS
Staff Writer
BUNNELL -- An Iraq war veteran was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday after psychiatrists said he was having a flashback when he shot and killed a man.
Brian Christopher Wothers, 26, of Ormond Beach will live in a mental-health treatment facility until he is no longer deemed a threat to himself or others.
He was accused of killing 26-year-old Jeffrey Maxwell, a traveling construction worker from Denison, Texas, who was in Florida on an assignment. Maxwell's body was found May 26, 2006, in a wooded area near Old Kings Road in Palm Coast.
Wothers had a history of post-traumatic stress disorder related to his military duties when he saw piles of bodies and witnessed shootings, his attorneys said.
Prosecutors and Wothers' attorneys agreed to a trial by Circuit Judge Kim C. Hammond -- on charges of robbery and first-degree murder -- instead of by a jury.
"He's likely to suffer from that disorder for the foreseeable future," Hammond said.
Three adults hugged and kissed Wothers after the trial. They declined comment for this story.
"I'll call you," Wothers whispered to a woman as he left the courtroom to return to the Flagler County Inmate Facility, where he has been held pending the outcome of his case.
Wothers will stay there until the paperwork is filed to transport him. His attorneys said while it's not definite, Wothers will likely be moved to the North Florida Evaluation Treatment Center in Gainesville.
Attorney Zachary Stoumbos said in most similar cases, it can take five years before someone is considered safe enough to release.
Jeffrey Maxwell's family did not attend the trial, but they remained close to their phones on a snowy week in northeastern Texas.
His mother, Evelyn Maxwell, said she had hoped Wothers would be forced to stay in a treatment facility for at least 10 years and thought he should be punished.
"I'd prefer if he was in there a lot longer than five years," she said.
She said that while she supports capital punishment in general, she did not want to pursue the death penalty because of Wothers' mental-health problems. The mother said she wanted him to get help.
She later added, "A lot of (veterans) do need help when they come out."
When soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan and are accused of killings and other crimes, the justice system has been increasingly impelled to consider the effects of combat trauma in their offenses, according to a January New York Times report.
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Evelyn Maxwell must be an amazing woman. She lost her son but even after that she can see that Wothers was not in his right mind when it happened. How is it that she can understand PTSD but we have so many in the military who cannot?
Brian and I went to high school together. He is a very great person and very loving. I am happy to know that he will get the chance to get well. We love you Doc!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment. It's very sad what they go through and what others have to go through because the veterans are not taken care of the way they need to be. Brian has a chance to heal, but too many other don't. I pray for his family as well as Jeffery's family.
ReplyDeleteWell I was a friend of Jeff's. Jeff was the most loving person you could meet. And trusting. You know what he got for that? Three shots in the chest with an M4assult rifle. Where's your loving friend now? That person doesn't exist. You don't just shoot somebody and dump their body!! I hope he gets help...so he can be tried for murder and die alone. Just like Jeff.
ReplyDeleteJeff and I are...well were bestfriends whenever this happened. Everyone loved Jeff. Really a charismatic guy that got along with everyone. Matter of fact Jeff and Brian were partying together that night, and Jeff was paying for everything since it was payday. He was to fly home that next morning. I don't know Brian, but I find it odd that he has a rifle in his car,especially if he had a history, and 1mile from the hotel where he was dropping off Jeff that he stops the car, pulls the rifle and shoots him 6 times...6 times. Jeff ,unarmed, was trying to get away whenever this happened. How can he do that? I hope that it really was a flash back, if not then a lot of vets will start blaming everything they do on it. I believe in PTSD and I hope that the Military takes steps in bringing soldiers back to reality in the US before they release these fine Americans to possibly kill innocent people due to the disease. I guess in the end...if he's telling the truth, that its really the military's fault for disregarding warning signs and not helping these men and woman cope.
ReplyDeleteI am very sorry for the loss of your friend. I do have to tell you that if PTSD is behind this, then Brian was not in control of himself. My husband has PTSD and you have no idea what they go through in a flashback.
ReplyDeleteWhile we look at people who have been victims of this kind of attack, we also need to understand what was behind it. Even the one who did it in this case, was a victim too but it didn't have to happen if they all were taknen care of when they wounded by PTSD.
I thank God on a daily basis that my husband is still alive. He wouldn't have been the type to hurt someone else, but he could have. He is more the type that would just want to die. He almost did. He's alive because he got help. We've been married 23 years because he got help. Too many others didn't.
Again, I am sorry for your loss but you should really try to understand what PTSD is for your own sake so you don't carry around hatred. It will only eat away at you. This too, I learned the hard way.
I went to school with Doc and we became really good friends, even after high school. We hung out alot before and after he joined the army. When he came home in the middle of his tour for R&R he was acting a little weird then. Once he was finished with his tour you can see he had changed, he was very distant from everyone that he was once close to. I knew that he needed to get help but I didnt think all this would happen. I know that he was trying to get help but they were telling him that the waiting list was very long and to be patience. I dont understand how can you tell someone to be patient for help when you didnt tell them to wait for deployment to Iraq. I'm sorry for what happen to Mr. Maxwell but I know deep down inside my friend wouldn't do anything of this magnitude if he was himself before his tour to Iraq. My heart goes out to both The Wothers and Maxwell family.
ReplyDeletePeople have a very hard time understanding PTSD, especially after something tragic happens. They can't understand how people change after living through terrible things and they understand it even less when that terrible thing was war.
ReplyDeleteA friend of our's wife called the other night to tell us he was back in the hospital after another episode. He's had several. My husband used to have a lot of them. We are not talking about Iraq veterans or Afghanistan veterans. We are talking about Vietnam veterans still paying the price for what they were sent to do.
I think at times it's harder on us because we realize how little has changed for the veterans and how much work has to be done. This country has done a terrible job taking care of them and a worse job helping the public to understand what PTSD is.
They didn't decide to change. PTSD did that for them.