A18 NEWS
News-Times Wednesday, October 17, 2012
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Muro: Schizophrenia hinders prosecution ■ From page 1 not know if Muro is ever released from state care. In fact, police don’t even know for sure where Muro is now. Federal privacy laws prevent the state from acknowledging that he may be at a mental health facility such as the Oregon State Hospital. Letters sent by the News-Times to the facilities most likely to house Muro were returned unopened. Muro, who suffers from catatonic schizophrenia, is stuck in the grey area where mental health and criminal justice collide — and due to a loophole in Oregon law, there is currently no solution for cases such as his. Consequently, law enforcement, Washington County prosecutors, and victims’ rights activists are all frustrated that Muro has yet to be brought to justice. Vasquez Ramos’ spouse, who asked not to be identified in order to protect her three daughters, said Muro’s faltering prosecution has left her in a state of emotional limbo. “I never thought I’d be 30 and my life would be the way it is now,” she said. “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t have questions.”
Mike Herb (foreground) of the Forest Grove Police Department and Fred Teufel, a pilot and owner of Oregon Roses, prepared to videotape the Lincoln Park crime scene in 2007. NEWS-TIMES FILE PHOTO
ined Muro said there was no likely chance he would ever be able to assist in his defense, and that “all treatment options have been exhausted.” Following this evaluation, Muro’s case was dropped again on May 29. Will the process be repeated yet again? No one is sure. State law is silent about what happens to a person who is found unable to stand trial after three years of treatment.
Searching for a killer On average Forest Grove is the site of one murder a year. But Forest Grove Police Capt. Mike Herb said murder of Vasquez Ramos was especially gruesome. “It ranked high in terms of the violence,” he said. According to court documents, around 3 a.m. on May 26, 2004 a witness heard a man screaming. The witness ran onto the lawn of Lincoln Park in Forest Grove to find a man stabbing Vasquez Ramos. The assailant stabbed Vasquez Ramos in the chest 19 times with a butterfly knife. He cut Vasquez Ramos’ throat and stuck him in the eye with a throwing star. Another witness came out to the scene when he heard screams from his apartment near the park. The assailant ran away, leaving Vasquez Ramos for dead. Two days passed before Forest Grove police detectives identified Muro as a suspect and arrested him. “We were just off hunting down every lead we had,” Herb said. “We had no idea.” Wayne Hart, a Forest Grove Police detective, was in an apartment complex near Lincoln Park following up on people of interest in the area when he had a stroke of luck. Right after he got a call from the station saying the composite sketch of the murderer had been identified as Muro, Hart saw Muro walking around the apartment building. “You could tell there was something going on with him,” Hart said, adding that Muro had red stains on his clothes and shoes and was trembling. Hart approached Muro, and saw that his hands were cut as well. Muro insisted that he had marred his hands while cutting fruit. He said the red stains on his clothing and shoes were paint, but couldn’t explain what he had been painting. Suspecting he had his man, Hart called for other officers. After asking Muro a few more questions, Forest Grove police detectives searched Muro for weapons, and confiscated a throwing star and butterfly knife before taking him to the police department for interrogation. According to police records agreed upon by Muro’s attorney, Muro insisted that he didn’t kill Vasquez Ramos. But Forest Grove Police told Muro they suspected that he had done it and wanted to hear what happened. The document shows that at about 5:15 p.m. on May 28, 2004 police videotaped Muro relaying “statements concerning his fear of Vasquez Ramos” and giving his description of the events on the night of the homicide. Herb said Muro walked detectives through everything that happened that night. Six days later, Muro was arrested for murder and lodged in the Washington County Jail in Hillsboro.
A disjointed life Although Forest Grove police investigators aren’t sure what motivated the attack, they learned that Vasquez
A free man?
NEWS-TIMES FILE PHOTO
Police surveyed Lincoln Park by helicopter, three years after Gilberto Vasquez Ramos was killed there. Major renovations of the park essentially erased the crime scene, so detectives worked to preserve as much information about the original setting as they could before construction began. Ramos was a close friend of had his first run-in with poMuro’s and the two had lice. fought a few months prior to In April of 2004, Forest the murder. Grove Police were called to Hart said the fight “was a the home of Muro’s mother big deal” to Muro. During the and stepfather at around 9 investigation, Hart said Muro p.m. When they arrived at showed him photos of the the apartment, Muro’s stepscratches and bites marks on father, Roberto Alvarez, said his body from the previous he had been changing his scuffle. ten-month-old child’s diaForest Grove police know pers when the baby began to little about Muro’s back- cry. Alvarez picked the baby ground, and said up, then Muro his family, which came into the had limited inroom and devolvement in the manded to hold investigation, no the child. longer lives in When Alvarez Forest Grove. refused, Muro According to shoved him. Mucourt records, ro continued to Muro, 31, was grab and shove born in Mexico Alvarez until his City and moved stepfather called to Texas when he police. Muro then was seven years left the room. old. M u r o ’s When quesmother was a — Capt. Mike Herb, tioned by police, homemaker, and Forest Grove Police M u r o s a i d h e his father heard the baby worked as a car crying and went salesman. A cousin reported to see why the child was upthat his father was in jail at set. He said he was concerned one point for selling drugs because Alvarez sometimes and died from an overdose yells at the baby and that he when Muro was young. grabbed him because he Muro, the oldest of seven wanted to take care of the siblings, went to an elemen- child himself. tary school in Mexico and anMuro was arrested and takother after his family moved en to the Washington County to Oregon. He went to Neil Jail, where he spent one night Armstrong Middle School, before being released April then Forest Grove High 13. Just over a month later, he School from 1998 to 2001. would return to the jail. This Records show that Muro time on murder charges. played football for a year, but Forest Grove teachers and Crumbling mental state It wasn’t long after Muro’s administrators couldn’t recall anything about him. Af- arrest for Vasquez Ramos’ ter failing to graduate on murder, on June 1, 2004, that time, he eventually got his it became clear his mental diploma from Renaissance condition would be a compliAlternative High School in cating factor. Records obtained by the News-Times Hillsboro. After graduation, Muro show that during his first few worked several different jobs, months in jail, Muro was on at places ranging from Burg- suicide watch and on occaer King to the Dollar Tree sion refused to eat, drink and store and LMS Concrete in clean himself. In July, Muro’s court-apCornelius. He also worked for a Mitsubishi dealership for pointed attorney requested three months before being that a psychologist evaluate fired for repeatedly showing his client’s mental state. Although Muro had no priup late. Records show that Muro or history of mental health had a few serious girlfriends. problems, the psychologist Then around the time of the suggested that Muro might murder, Muro became a fa- be schizophrenic, and that he ther as well; Forest Grove should be committed to the Police say Muro has a son Oregon State Hospital. This was one of several who would now be about 8. They do not know his where- times doctors would evaluate Muro. For the next eight abouts. One month before the mur- years, Muro would be transder of Vasquez Ramos, Muro ferred back and forth from
“The mere possibility that Muro could be released from the hospital without our knowledge is quite unsettling.”
the Washington County Jail to the state hospital in Salem, depending on his mental state. State law says that defendants with incapacitating mental health issues who can’t aid in their own defense cannot be forced to stand trial, so Muro’s legal case was stuck. People with schizophrenia can suffer from paranoid delusions and have trouble organizing their thoughts. Several drugs can be used to calm the effects of schizophrenia, but symptoms often return when patients stop taking the medications. Records show that several times Muro was found mentally competent enough to proceed with his case. But just as often, doctors reported that Muro was not mentally stable enough to go to trial. In February of this year, a p syc h o l o g i c a l eva l u at i o n showed that Muro did not understand he had been charged with murder, nor did he understand what would happen if he went to court. When asked what the Washington County District Attorney would try and prove, Muro replied “innocent.” He then said that he had found himself innocent, and that no one was ever found guilty of a crime. In 2008, a judge ruled Muro was unlikely to regain the capacity to stand trial in the near future. Oregon has three-year limit for a person to remain incompetent to stand trial and Muro had reached it. Records show that on July 9 the murder charge against him was dropped and the case was dismissed. He was civilly committed to the Oregon State Hospital. Herb said when the case was dropped in 2008, the police made an agreement with hospital officials that law enforcement would be notified if Muro were released into the community. So, when Muro was discharged from the Oregon State Hospital on Jan. 5, 2010, Forest Grove Police arrested him again. With the case renewed, the process started again. Muro spent the next two years being transported between the hospital and jail. In a February 2012 evaluation, the doctor that exam-
from physical illness. It just happens to affect the brain.” Link said mental illness can be challenging because it affects everything about a person’s life, but like any other sickness, it can be managed and treated. He agreed that Muro’s case is rare, both in the legal circumstances and the nature of the crime, adding that people who are mentally ill are often victims of crimes and rarely criminals. “Violent acts (committed by people with mental illness) are very low,” he said. Link acknowledges that violent crimes do happen, and said NAMI’s goal is to advocate for better services for those who struggle with mental illness. “In all the calls we take everyday, we see so much unmet need out there,” he said. “With mental illness, one of the worst aspects of it is that the person who is ill often doesn’t recognize that they are.”
If Muro’s mental state allowed him to be tried, he could be found not guilty, guilty or “guilty except for insanity.” If a court found him guilty, he’d go to prison. If a court found that his mental condition was a mitigating factor, he’d wind up the charge of the Psychiatric Security Review Board. But neither result can happen without a trial. Mary Claire Buckley, executive director of the Psychiatric Security Review Board, A family friend Fo r Va s q u e z R a m o s ’ the state agency that oversees the care of people who spouse, still struggling with have been found “guilty ex- the toll of her husband’s cept for insanity” in Oregon death, it’s clear that Muro is courts, said that cases like troubled. “At first I didn’t believe he Muro’s show there is a “gap was sick,” she said. “ In a in the system.” “As soon as you determine way, I still don’t.” She last saw Muro at a that the person will never be able to aid and assist, then court hearing. The man bethey drop the case,” she said. fore her was far different “That guy gets to walk out from the man who had been and go live like you and I. her husband’s friend. “I look at him and I just see There isn’t really any legal emptiness,” she said. “There authority over them. “ Although police officers is nothing there and it’s sad.” She’s known Muro since were able to re-arrest Muro in 2010, Herb is concerned they were in high school. He that Muro could be released would come over to her home this time without the police to play video games with her knowing. Because of federal husband, whom she married privacy laws, police have lim- at 18. “He (Muro) was really quiited information about Muet and really respectful,” she ro’s whereabouts. “The mere possibility that said. “He would be the last Muro could be released from person I would ever think the hospital without our anything bad of. For him to knowledge is quite unset- have done it is just shocking.” She hasn’t tling,” Herb said. talked to Muro Steve Doell, disince the murder, rector of Crime and said at first it Victims United, a could h ave non-profit that helped, but now a dvo c a t e s f o r thinks it wouldn’t crime victims, said that Muro’s make a differs i tu at i o n i s a ence. “huge catch-22.” “Maybe he “It’s a travesty would have talked of justice,” he back then,” she — Pete Link, Oregon said. “Now if I saw said. “No doubt NAMI him face to face he about it. It points to the fact that probably wouldn’t there is a huge loophole in even know who I was.” the system.” Her husband was killed and her friend arrested four Sickness like any other years into her marriage. She Advocates for the mentally was suddenly a single mother ill understand why Muro’s to three young daughters, the case is vexing. But they insist youngest just eight months that people in Muro’s situa- old. tion should not be punished Now, eight years later, for being sick. she’s still struggling with Pete Link, education pro- what to tell her youngest grams manager at Oregon’s daughter about what hapbranch of the National Asso- pened to her father. ciation on Mental Illness, or “I don’t even know what to NAMI, said that mentally ill tell her,” she said. “It’s even people who commit crimes hard when they have father should not be judged more days at school and when harshly just because of a Christmas comes around.” mental illness. She’d like closure, but it’s He used an example of a elusive. person who has a heart at“There are murders out tack while driving, and there that people are caught causes a fatal accident, to il- doing or confessed to it, and lustrate his point. the next week they are being “Should that person go to arraigned.” she said. “I don’t jail forever because a medical understand why that wasn’t illness caused them to harm done with him. What more do someone else?,” he said. they need other than a con“Mental illness is no different fession and evidence?”
“Mental illness is no different from physical illness. It just happens to affect the brain.”