Mother of man accused of attacking Georgetown boy with bat said he had 'psychotic break'

The mother of the man accused of attacking a 6-year-old Georgetown boy with a baseball bat asked authorities in a letter if she could visit her son in jail because he had a serious mental illness, according to Williamson County district clerk records.

Daniel Logan, 39, has been charged with assault with injury to a child with intentional serious bodily injury. Police say Logan beat Jeremy Diaz after breaking into his family's home on Sept. 11. Jeremy, who suffered serious brain injuries from the attack, died Nov. 14.

A public memorial service for Jeremy will be at 12:30 p.m. Dec. 9, at San Gabriel Presbyterian Church, said Art Diaz, Jeremy's father. The family has a GoFundMe page for Jeremy's medical and funeral costs.

More: 6-year-old Georgetown boy who was attacked by a neighbor with baseball bat dies Tuesday

Logan is being treated in a mental hospital and has been found incompetent to stand trial, according to court records. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23 to see if his competency has been restored.

Investigators are trying to determine whether charges against Logan will be upgraded to capital murder, the Williamson County sheriff's office has said. Capital murder is punishable with a death sentence, life imprisonment or life imprisonment without parole.

"No decisions have been made yet; however, our intake division has been evaluating the appropriate charges and will discuss them with Jeremy’s family," District Attorney Shawn Dick said. "There is still information to gather from law enforcement, and we wanted to give his family some time to mourn the unimaginable loss of their son."

Dick said charges can be filed against someone who is presently incompetent. "The criminal case simply cannot move forward unless/until the defendant regains competency," he said. Dick declined to say whether investigators think the attack was random or targeted.

Art Diaz said he thinks it would be appropriate to charge Logan with capital murder. "That's what he did," Diaz said.

Logan, 39, is also charged with aggravated assault in connection with hitting his mother in the face with a baseball bat when she tried to stop his attack on the Diaz family, according to an arrest affidavit.

More: Police: 6-year-old Georgetown boy hospitalized after neighbor attacks him with baseball bat

Cindy Logan, Logan's mother, sent a letter to the Williamson County district clerk on Oct. 5 asking that a protective order issued against her son be modified so she could visit him in jail. "I would like to see him to offer him support while he goes through this legal process," the letter said.

Cindy Logan also filed a motion to modify the magistrates' order of emergency protection. She said in the motion that "Daniel William Logan has never before this incident hurt me."

"At the time of the assault he was not himself. He was having a severe psychotic break. He is in jail and me visiting him would not put me in danger," according to the motion. It was filed at the district clerk's office on Oct. 18.

Art Diaz said Wednesday that his family never had any reason to fear for their safety before Daniel Logan, who is their neighbor, attacked Jeremy with a bat in the boy's bedroom. "We never noticed any erratic behavior and never felt threatened. My son and I greeted him cordially just the weekend before from our patio," Art Diaz said.

More: Community holds fundraiser for Jeremy Diaz, Georgetown 6-year-old attacked by man with bat

Diaz said he doesn't know why Logan attacked his son.

"That's for him to answer," said Diaz. "I suspect he hated good things, or the joy in which my children greeted him, since he had no issue striking down my son. We are a Christian family."

Diaz said he suspected that Logan "would have continued against everyone in the house if I had failed to disarm him."

He also said that a few days before the attack, he thinks Logan had made a cut in the fencing that separated their houses.

"Looks like he was already moving in our direction," Diaz said. He said the cut destroyed a grape vine growing on the fence that he and Jeremy had planted.

Logan and his wife had made a compliment about the grape vine because it was growing so high, Diaz said.

Jeremy survived for more than 60 days after the attack, his father said. He even had seemed to be improving a few days before his death.

"Toward the last days, he would open both eyes and was more conscious," said Diaz. "His vitals had also been improving dramatically. We thought he would make it."

Jeremy died the day before doctors planned to take a tube out of his throat that helped him breathe, his father said. He had suddenly gotten worse, Diaz said. "Jeremy was having a horrible neurostorm and didn't recover," he said.

A neurostorm is a stress reaction to a traumatic brain injury.

"During a neurostorm, the body contracts, temp goes up, heart goes up; painful to watch," he said. Diaz said the neurostorm that Jeremy was having before he died "was the worst one he had and was also surprising since he hadn't had one in weeks."

"Tough to witness," he said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Mom of suspect in beating of Jeremy Diaz, 6, said he is mentally ill