PTSD on Trial: Oceanside Iraq Veteran

PTSD on Trial:

Iraq war vet with PTSD gets 16 to life for killing his friend
San Diego Union Tribune
Teri Figueroa 
December 15, 2017

A former Marine who served two tours in Iraq was sentenced Thursday to 16 years to life in prison for stabbing a friend to death in the friend’s Oceanside home as the victim’s two toddlers slept.

An Iraq war veteran with PTSD was sentenced Thursday to 16 years to life in prison in the 2015 stabbing death of a friend in garage of the victim's Oceanside home. Inside, the victim’s two toddlers were asleep on a couch. (Teri Figueroa)

Last month, a North County jury convicted David Anthony Strouth, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, of second-degree murder for killing Brad Garner, 49, while the two were hanging out in Garner’s garage.

Strouth, who had started cutting himself, asked the neighbors and responding police to kill him, according to the prosecution’s filing.

Police found Strouth’s bloody K-bar knife — with the inscription Operation Iraqi Freedom — in the garage. 

At trial, Strouth testified that it had been self-defense, telling the jury that Garner had come at him with the knife, and they struggled, but Strouth won control of it.

Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza said Friday he was pleased with the outcome of the case. He said in October that “the verdict demonstrated that PTSD may explain but does not excuse an unprovoked killing.”

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