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"Family tracks killer to job They use courts to follow Dix patient R.B. "Nick" Nicholson learned only recently that the mental patient who killed his son and three others is working 50 hours a week at a Wake County convenience store. His son's killer, Michael Hayes, was acquitted by reason of insanity in the shooting spree at a rural Forsyth County crossroads in 1988. Hayes, 43, has lived at Dorothea Dix mental hospital in Raleigh since then and been deemed too mentally ill or too dangerous to be released. Because Hayes was sent to a mental hospital, the victims' families weren't entitled to information about Hayes that they would have received if he had been convicted and sent to prison. Hayes' job off hospital grounds disgusts Nicholson and his wife, Doris, who have been married 52 years. "It's the most horrible thing there is. He has no business out working," Doris Nicholson said at their home last week. Their son, Thomas, was a former high school student body president who was working as a mechanic and engaged to be married when he was killed. Hayes said that during the shooting spree he thought he was killing demons in human bodies. Six of the 31 current Dix patients who were found not guilty by reason of insanity are in the off-campus work program, said Dr. Jim Osberg, the hospital's director. "Our goal in the hospital is to help people return to the community when it's appropriate," Osberg said. He added that learning how to hold a job is part of that transition. Hayes has a right to privacy; Dix officials cannot even acknowledge Hayes is a patient. As Hayes' attorney, Karl Knudsen of Raleigh, explained: Hayes is at the hospital for treatment. Once his treatment is complete, he will be released. "It's certainly understandable that those people would want to know everything about him but they have no legal right," Knudsen said. Hayes, through Knudsen, declined a request for an interview. Nick Nicholson said he found out within the past year that Hayes was working off campus because a friend spotted him going to work. Nicholson initiated the most recent litigation to find out more details about Hayes' job. In response to a questionnaire, Nicholson said, Hayes said he worked at the Han-Dee Hugo's on Ten Ten Road. Haddon Clark, who owns the store, said Hayes was already an employee there when he bought it last summer and learned about Hayes' past from the previous owner. "We found him to be an exemplary employee," Clark said. "I did not know the families didn't know that he was out doing work. That's news to us." Patients earn the privilege of working off campus by performing well in supervised and unsupervised activities on- and off-campus, according to Dr. Mark Hazelrigg, who oversees the forensic treatment program. Knudsen said Hayes stopped having hallucinations shortly after the killings and has not taken psychiatric medications since 1988. At the last hearing, Knudsen said, six mental health professionals believed Hayes was no longer ill. The trial judge and appeals court ruled otherwise. Since then, Knudsen said, Hayes has focused on demonstrating that he neither suffers from mental illness nor represents any danger to the community. Knudsen said his client has suffered by living the past 19 years in a mental hospital. "It has been particularly difficult for Michael because he has been a sane man living in an insane asylum for years and years and years," he said. "That is punishment." "

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/567538.html

Psychology seems a pretty inexact science to be deciding when insane killers can be put back into society.

4/26/2007 10:08:13 AM

"insane" or not you are still guilty and should be locked the fuck up.

4/26/2007 10:32:57 AM

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4/26/2007 10:42:57 AM

he sure did manage to recover quickly. YAR demons....oop im better and suffering from living here.

4/26/2007 11:24:37 AM

In a system where criminals are people too and deserve rehabilitation instead of retribution, this doesn't entirely surprise me. That doesn't mean I think it's fair, though.

It's entirely possible that a criminal can be "cured" and feel genuine remorse for what he's done, but that does not change the fact that he owes his victims and society a debt.

4/26/2007 11:30:36 AM

Quote :

"Knudsen said his client has suffered by living the past 19 years in a mental hospital. "It has been particularly difficult for Michael because he has been a sane man living in an insane asylum for years and years and years," he said. "That is punishment." "

This is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard all week

4/26/2007 12:28:12 PM

^esp after reading this in the beginning

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"was acquitted by reason of insanity in the shooting spree at a rural Forsyth County crossroads in 1988"

i mean was he crazy or not

if he was found not guilty b/c insanity but then they come back and say he was sane all these years

4/26/2007 1:05:02 PM

Well apparently he was cured fairly quickly (six months in a mental hospital is still plenty of time) but they didnt release him simply because he did something very bad while he was crazy.

4/26/2007 1:30:18 PM

Someone else tell me if this is plausible:
hayes enters an establishment with the intention of robbing it. However, one patron or the owner fights back and is killed. Hayes, realizing he has just committed murder and the only possible defense is insanity, kills everyone else to eliminate witnesses that knew he originally tried to rob the place. Now, by not robbing the place, and not knowing anyone that worked there, people will buy his insanity defense; all that is now required is six months of good actings.

"They were demons!"

4/26/2007 1:46:59 PM

eh, if he was truly fucked up that's one thing, but if he just had a good lawyer it's kinda fucked.

they should limit his (and others) jobs to things like public/community service stuff though.

4/26/2007 2:08:28 PM

I can understand that there are insane people out there that possibly don't control their actions or don't realize what they are doing is wrong.

But if you are crazy enough I find it hard to believe that you can be cured in 6 months. Hell, I find it difficult to say you are ever fully cured if you are insane enough to kill a bunch of people. Maybe maximum security prison isn't the place for you, but neither is 7-11.

4/26/2007 2:22:02 PM

^^^Are you serious?

4/27/2007 10:37:10 AM

Perhaps the pyschologists who felt this guy was ready again for society wouldn't mind him working at the same place their children and loved ones work first for awhile.

4/27/2007 10:43:52 AM

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"Psychology seems a pretty inexact science"

[irony]exactly[/irony]

4/27/2007 11:04:39 AM

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"But if you are crazy enough I find it hard to believe that you can be cured in 6 months."

yeah that was my point. it seemed very convenient that he was cured so quickly. i'd believe it a lot more if he was on medication, but they made a special point of saying that he wasn't. i just don't see how you could go from psycotic delusions/hallucinations to normal in 6 months.

4/27/2007 11:13:09 AM

Theres no minimum on the amount of time it takes to be cured of "Crazy"

4/28/2007 5:32:54 AM

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"Knudsen said Hayes stopped having hallucinations shortly after the killings and has not taken psychiatric medications since 1988."

no shit! thats usually what happens when you use insanity as your plea.

4/28/2007 7:29:39 AM

^^ never said there was, but it sure seems unlikely.

4/28/2007 9:47:43 AM