LAKEPORT — A jury decided former Clearlake resident James Wade Roberts was sane when he stabbed and strangled his roommate in October 2006. The decision followed three hours of testimony during the sanity phase of his murder trial Tuesday and one hour of deliberation by the jury.
The same jury convicted Roberts Thursday of first-degree murder. Roberts testified on the stand during the eight-week guilt phase of his trial that God told him to kill Ruth Donaldson, who shared a Mullen Avenue home with Roberts and four other people at the time of her death.
“Given what the verdict was in the guilt phase of the trial, I”m not shocked that they found him sane,” Roberts” defense attorney Stephen Carter said outside the courtroom.
Lake County District Attorney Jon Hopkins said Roberts faces a minimum sentence of 86 years in state prison. The murder conviction is his third serious felony conviction, making a total of six “strikes” on his record. Two prior convictions add five years apiece to the tripled minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for first-degree murder, plus one year for Roberts”s use of a knife.
Psychologist Albert Kastl reiterated Monday on the stand that Roberts suffers from schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Presiding Superior Court Judge Richard Martin instructed the jury to decide whether Roberts was sane or insane at the time of the Oct. 15, 2006 murder.
“The defendant was legally insane if, when he committed the crime, he had a mental disease or defect, and because of that disease or defect, he did not know or understand the nature and quality of his act or did not know or understand that his act was morally or legally wrong,” Martin read in a jury instruction.
“He (Roberts) did not understand the moral and legal implications in terms of our legal system, because he believed he was acting under a higher law. In stabbing Ms. Donaldson, he indicated it was not his hand operating but the hand of God, which is not conforming to contemporary moral or legal conventions,” Kastl said.
Hopkins called two psychiatrists to the stand who had previously testified in the guilt phase of the trial. Dr. Donald Apostle and Dr. Douglas Rosoff disagreed with Kastl, saying Roberts suffered only from antisocial personality disorder, not grounds to find Roberts insane, according to the jury instructions.
“I think he”s had a long and tragic life. He has not had the nurturing or the cognitive learning to have a healthy personality,” Apostle said. He attributed Roberts” behavior around Donaldson”s murder to his use of methamphetamine the night before.
Carter said in closing statements that the drug use added “gasoline to the fire” of Roberts” already psychotic state.
“A temporary mental condition caused by the recent use of drugs or intoxicants is not legal insanity,” the jury instruction said.
Sentencing is set for May 9 at 1:30 p.m. in the Lakeport courthouse.
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