N.B. judge to rule on suspect’s fitness to stand trial in murders

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – A New Brunswick judge will rule Friday if a man accused of murdering his elderly New Brunswick neighbors is fit to stand trial.

Judge Judy Clendening has heard from psychiatrists who agree Gregory Despres has paranoid schizophrenia and is antisocial, but who disagree on whether he is fit to stand trial.

Dr. Louis Theriault testified for the Crown on Wednesday, saying that 24-year-old Despres can stand trial.

Theriault, the head of psychiatry at the Shepody treatment center, said Despres has begun to respond to medication.

He originally felt Despres was unfit because of his behavior during their meetings, including one visit where Despres threatened to kill him, said Theriault.

He told the court he changed his opinion largely on the report of a civilian tribunal that met with Despres last Thursday.

“I was told he was acting perfectly normal … and agreeing to take his medication,” said Theriault.

A second psychiatrist, Dr. Scott Theriault, who testified for the defense Tuesday, declared that Despres is not fit to stand trial.

He said an examination revealed the accused man believes he is a soldier and a pilot with an organization he refers to as the SSP, or Super Space Patrol.

Scott Theriault told the court that there had been some improvement with the medication that Despres is taking, but he remains delusional.

Despres has been on trial since early January for the grisly double murder of Fred Fulton, 74, and his 70-year-old wife, Verna Decarie, who were found dead in their Minto home on April 25, 2005.

The trial was stopped in February after Despres delivered a 10-minute courtroom rant about al-Qaida, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the Super Space Patrol.

Despres underwent the court-ordered psychiatric assessment after his attorney, Ed Derrah, asked the judge for the evaluation.

Although Despres had been found fit to stand trial after earlier pretrial assessments, Derrah told the court that Despres’ erratic behavior during the trial – and his refusal to cooperate in his defense – called for him to be reassessed.

“Fitness to stand trial is not a static thing,” Louis Theriault said Wednesday.

He said his opinion and that of the Scott Theriault – who is of no relation – were not that different because both agree Despres has a mental illness.

“We’re on different sides of the fence, but only feet apart,” he said.

Clendening questioned the change in Louis Theriault’s assessment of Despres.

“He seems to put a lot of emphasis on what was said by the tribunal,” Clendening told Crown prosecutor Paul Hawkins.

“There has been an almost miraculous transformation, and he wasn’t there and hasn’t talked with [Despres] since making his first assessment.”

Hawkins told the court that if Despres is found unfit to stand trial, he will ask for a hearing seeking more treatment for him.

The Court of Queen’s Bench trial has focused on often gruesome details of the crime scene in the Fulton home and how bloody prints in the home matched boots seized from Despres.

Both victims were stabbed repeatedly, and Fulton was decapitated.

Other testimony showed that DNA in blood found on items seized from Despres when he crossed the U.S.-Canada border matched Fulton’s blood.

Despres, who has dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship, was allowed to enter the United States, despite bizarre behavior at the border crossing in Calais, Maine.

He described himself as a marine sniper and an assassin with 700 kills to his credit. He was carrying a homemade sword, knife, chain saw, pepper spray, hatchet and brass knuckles, all of which were confiscated by U.S. border guards.

Several guards testified that they could not detain Despres because he had a valid U.S. passport.