Former Capitol staffer found not guilty by reason of insanity in fatal shooting of neighbor
A former Texas Capitol staffer is headed to a maximum security mental health facility for an indefinite commitment after a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of his neighbor and a series of random shootings that left two others injured.
Charles Curry, 32, was charged with murder in the shooting death of 32-year-old Christian Meroney at the Post South Lamar apartments. State District Judge Julie Kocurek made the not guilty ruling Thursday, after a mutual agreement between Travis County prosecutors and the defense.
Curry has schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, a doctor appointed by prosecutors determined over the course of multiple evaluations.
Curry and Meroney lived six doors from each other, and Meroney was found shot dead 10 feet from his apartment on July 9, 2018, according to an arrest affidavit. Investigators never offered a motive in the shooting, but people had reported before the shooting that Curry was exhibiting erratic and unstable behavior.
"Christian was loved by everyone he came into contact with and had the ability to connect and bond with anyone he met. ... Christian was a walking encyclopedia, knowing anything and everything about any topic you could think of," his obituary says.
From 2018: Capitol staffers expressed concern before shootings
Curry had been hospitalized through an involuntary mental health commitment at the David Lawrence Centers for Behavioral Health in Naples, Fla., said Curry's attorney, David Gonzalez. Three days before Meroney was killed, Curry was admitted to a University of Kentucky hospital for the same reason, Gonzalez said.
"His parents kept seeking a longer involuntary commitment, but he was shortly discharged from each facility by the hospital staff," Gonzalez said.
According to investigators, days after Curry shot Meroney — but before police found and arrested him — he tried to buy a gun suppressor at the Range at Austin, which turned Curry away because he was acting strangely, the arrest affidavit said. Within a half-hour, police began receiving calls about a shooter targeting drivers across South Austin.
The first shooting happened on the service road of Interstate 35, between William Cannon Drive and Slaughter Lane. A woman driving with three children in her vehicle was hit in the head by a bullet and was hospitalized with serious injuries, police said.
The second shooting happened shortly afterward in the 5300 block of Ponciana Drive, and a third one followed at the Post South Lamar apartments, police said. No injuries were reported in either of those incidents.
In the fourth shooting, in the 4000 block of South Lamar, a woman was injured by glass that sprayed into her face after a bullet crashed through one of her vehicle’s windows, police said. The bullet did not strike her, they said.
Investigators believe Curry fired at his victims as he drove. Victims, witnesses and surveillance footage allowed police to identify the vehicle, which was registered to Curry, police said.
Investigators looking into similarities between the shootings and Meroney's slaying conducted ballistics tests on the bullets they found in each case and determined that they all came from the same gun.
Members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force — a team of local, state and federal law enforcement officers tasked with running down violent fugitives — got involved in the search and found Curry at the Post South Lamar apartments, in the 1500 block of South Lamar Boulevard, because his access key was no longer working, police said. Officers had received a call about a shirtless man trying to get into a building.
Several months before Meroney was killed, Capitol staffers had expressed concerns about Curry's mental health after he was fired from his job in state Sen. Joan Huffman's office.
Huffman's chief of staff, Wroe Jackson, reached out to troopers after Curry went to the senator's office after he was fired, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records. "They feel the subject is trying to intimidate them, and his actions were erratic and sometimes demanding," an email said.
A doctor in 2019 found Curry incompetent to stand trial, but after he received treatment, a doctor in 2020 said he was competent.
No limit has been placed on the amount of time Curry can be held at the mental health facility. For him to be released, the facility would have to determine that he no longer needs treatment or care, and a state health review board would have to agree. Even then, a state district judge could disagree with the findings and rule that Curry must remain at the facility.
About 60 people in Travis County over the past 10 years have been found not guilty by reason of insanity and have been confined to a mental health hospital rather than sentenced to jail or prison.
That was the outcome for Kendrex White, who in 2017 fatally stabbed fellow University of Texas student Harrison Brown and wounded three others on campus.
Weeks before the attack, police took White to what was then University Medical Center Brackenridge after he sent a text message to his parents indicating suicidal thoughts, White's mother testified. The staff at the hospital released White after deciding he was just stressed over school and not a danger to himself or others.
A day earlier, White had been released after nine days at a mental health hospital near his parents' home in Killeen.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Charles Curry found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2018 killing
