PTSD on trial, veteran receives acquittal

PTSD cited in vet’s murder acquittal
Kim Murphy Los Angeles Times
JOHN DAY, Ore. – When Jessie Bratcher’s fiancee told him the baby might not be his, that she had been raped two months earlier, he went quiet.

The former Oregon National Guardsman hung his head for the longest time. Then he went into the next room, put the barrel of an AK-47 in his mouth and took it out again.

He told Celena Davis not to expect to get any sleep that night. He walked up to her with a pair of scissors and slowly cut off her hair.

Two mornings later, they drove to the hardware store. While Davis waited in the truck, Bratcher went in and bought a gun. He came out, loaded it and asked: Do we go to the police? Or go find the guy? “Police,” Davis said.

Except that it was a Saturday, and the main door to the station was locked. Bratcher and Davis didn’t know there was an emergency door on the side of the building.

So they headed for Jose Ceja Medina’s trailer. At first Medina, standing on his porch in running shorts, denied knowing Davis. Then he said they’d had sex, but that he hadn’t raped her, and he offered to take care of the baby.
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http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/nov/29/ptsd-cited-in-vets-murder-acquittal/