Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994                   TAG: 9401270233
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXPERTS DIFFER OVER SANITY

Turner, 40, has never denied that he shot William Dale Hartman five times during a wild car chase the night of April 3, 1992.

The main dispute in his murder trial came Wednesday, when psychologists offered conflicting expert opinions about whether Turner should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Defense psychologist Eileen Taylor testified that Turner, who suffers from a manic-depressive disorder, was unable to control his actions.

She told jurors that the shooting culminated a chaotic week of feuding between Turner and Hartman. Turner had accused Hartman, 30, of burglarizing his home and making death threats.

Taylor testified that the extreme stress of the dispute drove Turner into a psychotic state that made him believe Hartman was going to kill him.

After a 70-mph car chase ended at Jamestown Plaza Shopping Center on Riverland Road Southeast, Turner fired at least seven shots into Hartman's car.

Turner "would imagine the world as a war zone, and he believed if somebody was after him, he would have to protect himself," Taylor testified.

The combination of self-defense and temporary insanity is similar to the defense used last week by Lorena Bobbitt, who claimed an "irresistible impulse" led her to sever her husband's penis after years of alleged rape and abuse.

Henry Gwaltney, a state psychologist who rebutted the irresistible impulse theory last week in the Bobbitt trial, did the same thing Wednesday in Turner's case.

In most insanity cases, defendants must show they did not know the difference between right and wrong and could not understand the nature of their acts. Based on those tests, Gwaltney said, Turner was not insane at the time of the offense.

Irresistible impulse is used in cases of temporary insanity - when defendants are able to distinguish between right and wrong but nonetheless cannot stop a sudden act of violence.

Gwaltney testified that an irresistible impulse cannot be premeditated. Earlier in the trial, a Roanoke police officer testified that Turner had threatened to kill Hartman several days before the shooting.

Another psychologist, Jerome Nichols, also testified that he did not believe Turner was insane at the time of the offense or experiencing an irresistible impulse.

However, all three psychologists agreed that Turner has suffered for years from a major mental illness that has caused severe mood swings and paranoia.

In fact, Turner's erratic behavior and his long criminal record earned him the nickname "Crazy Eddie" in his Southeast Roanoke neighborhood, police said.

Taylor testified that Turner often experienced hallucinations, believing he could smell Hartman in his Piedmont Street apartment shortly after the break-in and seeing snakes and the shadow of the devil.

In the days before the shooting, Turner barricaded his apartment and stocked it with an arsenal of weapons - signs that he was suffering paranoid delusions, Taylor testified.

Turner faces a sentence of up to life in prison for first-degree murder. If he is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be committed to a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite time.

Keywords:
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