90-Day Delay in Gary Schmitt Evaluation Case

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Published on June 14 2019 12:09 pm
Last Updated on June 14 2019 12:09 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

Judge Kimberly Koester has granted a delay in the evaluation of Effingham native Gary Schmitt to see whether he is ready to be granted additional freedom.

(SCHMITT)

Schmitt was charged with the murder of his father, Jack Schmitt, in Effingham in June 2010 and with the stabbings of Jodi Harris and her daughter Lauren Huntington in January 2011. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in October 2012.

Schmitt is being housed at the Andrew McFarland Mental Health Center in Springfield. The evaluations since his time there have been good and Schmitt's defense counsel filed a motion in December for him to be given less supervision. Under the request, Schmitt would be transferred to a group home setting in Springfield, and would be in an unsupervised status. He would have to report in and document that he is taking medications to control his schizophrenia. The consensus when the case was originally decided was that Schmitt's schizophrenia led to his actions.

Effingham County State's Attorney Bryan Kibler asked for the delay in a decision on the defense request. Kibler asked for an independent evaluation of Schmitt. Kibler said, "I think someone outside of McFarland needs to do an evaluation, and someone who doesn't have a financial stake in this." He said the 3,000 pages of reports filed by the evaluators had "not one negative thing to say about Mr. Schmitt. I won't say it couldn't happen (that there was nothing negative to report), but it seems unlikely."

Kibler asked for the appointment of Dr. Terry Killian to conduct the independent evaluation of Schmitt. Killian was the doctor who conducted an evaluation and recommended Schmitt be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Schmitt's attorney, Daniel Fultz, objected to Kibler's request due to the time the defense request has been on file, but didn't object to the evaluation. Fultz said Killian's earlier involvement in the case should speed along the evaluation time.

Judge Koester set the date for the matter to be revisited for September 27 at 10:30am. She said, "It's a good idea to have a second opinion." She also touched on the fact that the key item is whether Schmitt will continue taking his medications. The judge said, "We know his failure to maintain his medicine regimen is the biggest factor in this case."