An 85-year-old St. Petersburg man charged with killing his wife last year was found mentally incompetent to stand trial Monday.

Now the question is where he will go. Defense attorneys want him to be put in a nursing home. The prosecution has another goal.

“Our intention is that he never get out,” said Assistant State Attorney Mike Andrews.

John Henry Armbrecht, a retired electrician from Pennsylvania, lived on Orchard Drive N in the Meadowlawn area with his wife, Helena, 73. During an argument March 27, 1995, police say Armbrecht beat his wife with a hot skillet, then stabbed her more than a dozen times.

Police say he confessed to the killing.

Most people charged with first-degree murder in Pinellas stay in jail until trial. But not Armbrecht.

Last June, Dr. Karl Jones, a St. Petersburg psychiatrist hired by the defense, said Armbrecht was severely depressed and needed intensive treatment outside jail. So Circuit Judge Nelly Khouzam ordered him confined to Charter Medfield Hospital.

A few months later Jones reported that Armbrecht had improved and should be released from Medfield – but not taken back to jail because that would destroy his progress.

The judge approved moving Armbrecht to a St. Petersburg nursing facility called Casa Celeste.

Since then, however, Armbrecht’s condition has not improved. In an April 5 report Jones said Armbrecht is currently a patient at Horizon Hospital under the Baker Act, because he was suicidal.

Meanwhile a panel of three experts has found Armbrecht incompetent to handle his other affairs and probate court has appointed a guardian for him, defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand told the judge Monday.

A cornerstone of the legal system is that a defendant must be mentally competent to assist in his or her own defense. Defendants found incompetent must be treated in the hopes they will be returned to competence, and then tried.

Most incompetent defendants are sent to a state mental hospital for treatment.

But Brunvand pointed out that state law requires they be placed in the least restrictive facility, and in this case that could mean going back to the Casa Celeste.

Khouzam scheduled a hearing for Thursday to determine where Armbrecht will be sent for treatment.

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

Violent Crimes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 23rd, 1996 at 10:51 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.