She called him crazy. She threatened to put him in a nursing home. So, say police, John Henry Armbrecht stabbed his wife to death.

Since then, the 85-year-old Armbrecht has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial for first-degree murder. On Tuesday, a judge sent him to a St. Petersburg nursing home where he will be guarded around the clock.

Most incompetent defendants would be sent to a state mental institution such as the one in Chattahoochee.

A psychologist who has worked on Armbrecht’s case said he is being treated differently because he can afford it.

“This case has a whole different texture because of money,” Dr. Georgia Brandstadter-Palmer said. Had Armbrecht been poor “we would have sent him off to Chattahoochee. . . . We could do something with alternate environments because of his resources.”

Palmer, who worked for the court system for 16 years before resigning to run for sheriff, predicted more cases like Armbrecht’s will arise because more defendants with the medical needs of the elderly are showing up in Pinellas criminal cases.

For months, the court system has struggled with what to do with Armbrecht, who suffers from depression, paranoia and senile dementia.

Until last year, the retired electrician lived on Orchard Drive N in St. Petersburg with his wife, Helena, 73. During an argument March 27, 1995, police say, Armbrecht beat her with a hot skillet, then stabbed her 31 times.

After he spent a month in the Pinellas County Jail, Circuit Judge Nelly Khouzam permitted him to be moved to Charter Medfield Hospital, then to Casa Celeste, an adult living facility in St. Petersburg.

Last week, he was committed to Horizon Hospital as suicidal. His commitment runs out Friday, and the management of Casa Celeste did not want him back. Armbrecht’s attorney, Bjorn Brunvand, blamed complaints from other residents upset about having someone accused of murder living there.

Brunvand sought to move Armbrecht to the Hacienda, a New Port Richey nursing home. Khouzam balked because it is not a locked facility and she feared he would escape.

Instead, she approved a plan submitted by the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to move him to Jacaranda Manor on 66th Street N.

The nursing home also has treated Michael Schurko, 83, of St. Petersburg, who in 1989 was accused of stabbing his wife, Eleanor, to death, then slashing his own chest and wrists. Like Armbrecht, he has been found incompetent.

At Jacaranda Manor, Armbrecht would be watched 16 hours a day, particularly at meals when he might have access to knives, said Dr. Karan Berger, a psychologist who assessed him at the request of HRS.

The rest of the day he would be monitored using electronic devices, she said. In three months the judge could review his progress and perhaps move him to the Hacienda, she said.

Brunvand expressed concern about the expense of Jacaranda Manor: $7,800 for the first month and $3,200 for each of the next two months.

And prosecutor Mike Andrews once again urged the judge to send Armbrecht to Chattahoochee.

Andrews predicted that when the judge reviews Armbrecht’s condition in three months, she will find it hasn’t improved.

St. Petersburg Times – St. Petersburg, Fla.
Author: Craig Pittman

Violent Crimes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 19th, 1996 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.