A jury found Mark Becker guilty of murder in the shooting of Ed Thomas, who was a well-known high school football coach in Iowa.
From ESPN.com:
Becker, 24, had explained to psychiatrists that after months of torment, he shot Thomas at least six times in the makeshift high school weight room, then kicked his body before walking away.
Jurors deliberated more than 24 hours over five days before convicting Becker of first-degree murder, rejecting his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The guilty verdict carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Defense psychiatrist Phillip Resnick, of Cleveland, said Becker believed Satan had possessed Thomas and that he was doing the community a favor — and freeing Parkersburg’s children — by killing the coach.
Resnick and others who interviewed Becker about his mental status said Becker suffered from such intense delusions that he incorrectly believed Thomas and the members of Becker’s old football team were sexually assaulting him, and that Thomas was trying to make Becker into a “sex slave.”
Maryland-based psychiatrist Michael Spodak, testifying for the prosecution, agreed Becker suffered from severe mental problems, including paranoid schizophrenia, but said he still understood right and wrong.
Spodak said Becker took rational measures to avoid detection on the morning of the shooting: He hid his gun while he was driving, told passersby that he was searching for Thomas in order to volunteer for the city’s tornado relief efforts, and made it a point to avoid shooting the teenagers in the weight room.
Although I have my own take on this subject, I’ll leave psychological evaluations to the professionals. Draw your own conclusions as to whether or not you think this conviction was right.
I will note, however, that Todd Thomas, the son of Ed Thomas, said it best after the trial when he stated that there are no winners here. One man lost his life, while the other will watch the rest of his go by from a prison cell. It’s a sad, unfortunate situation.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
