Wantage man accused of 2012 killing not competent to stand trial, doctor opines

A forensic psychologist has found a Wantage man who gouged out his own eyes while in jail for purportedly killing a 73-year-old woman nearly a decade ago no longer competent to stand trial.

Victor Razumov, 27, is unable to assist in his own defense due to a diagnosis of schizophrenia that has left him confused and paranoid, Dr. Jeffrey Palmer said during a hearing Wednesday in Sussex County Superior Court. Razumov continues to have delusions that have significantly impaired his ability to understand the charges against him, he found.

The doctor's findings are a stark reversal of those by a forensic psychiatrist in 2019, who opined Razumov, who is facing charges including murder, was intelligent and capable of understanding his case. The doctor's testimony, including findings Razumov had malingered some symptoms, was the basis for a judge's January 2019 decision to render him competent to stand trial. A trial date was set for May 2020, but the pandemic halted any movement in the case.

Razumov, then an 18-year-old High Point Regional High School student, is accused of cutting the throat of Virginia "Suzy" Sommer while he burglarized her home on Valley View Trail in the Lake Neepaulin section of Wantage on Nov. 14, 2012. Authorities say he was caught on video camera pawning the stolen items at a shop in Sussex.

Sahil Kabse, a Sussex assistant prosecutor who has long questioned if Razumov has feigned some symptoms to avoid trial, acknowledged Palmer's findings Thursday.

A judge ultimately makes the decision on whether a defendant is competent to stand trial, often after reading through reports and hearing testimony by doctors who evaluated the defendant. Sussex County Superior Court Judge Michael Gaus is expected to make a written decision in the coming weeks. Kabse has asked the judge to impose, if necessary, actions Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, where Razumov is receiving treatment, can take to return him to competency.

Dr. Mohammed Mohammad Ashraf, a clinical psychiatrist who has treated Razumov for four years, also testified Wednesday, but was not asked to opine if he thought Razumov was competent to stand trial. Prosecutors called Ashraf to the stand to testify to Razumov's disinterest in counseling or treatment that Palmer said would benefit him.

Razumov does not engage in activities at the hospital, often sitting alone in his room, and has declined one-on-one therapy, Ashraf said.

Ashraf said during an April 22 evaluation he found Razumov was not experiencing delusions or paranoia and believed medication was helping to "lower" the intensity of auditory hallucinations he was having. Razumov, he said, is compliant in taking his medications and is aware that the voices are not real.

Not competent

Palmer testified that Razumov's hallucinations alone did not bar him from being competent, since those with mental illness are deemed competent to stand trial all the time. The focus, he said, is more on managing the symptoms. Medications were purportedly helping Razumov in 2019, a doctor testified, but since then, his symptoms have become inconsistent and at times concerning, Palmer said.

Palmer, who is employed at the Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton, evaluated Razumov twice in 2021 and a third time in January 2022. During the evaluations, Razumov's displayed auditory, visual and tactile hallucinations, which are consistent with symptoms of schizophrenia, Palmer said. Razumov, he said, experienced "bizarre delusions" where he believed unknown forces put him in prison unjustly and prison staff had poured acid down his throat.

Razumov's competency has been at the forefront of numerous court hearings since December 2014, when authorities say while awaiting trial in Trenton State Prison, he gouged out his left eye. A week later, he nearly gouged out the right, and according to doctors, is functionally blind. A judge ruled him unfit for trial in 2015.

Razumov has said in the past and maintains that he was deliberately harmed by sheriff's officers, who are part of a larger conspiracy to frame him and plant evidence against him. He also believes they injured his eyes in the prison.

Palmer said he administered the Inventory of Legal Knowledge test, which is designed to detect feigned incompetence to stand trial, in May 2021 and found Razumov gave him answers that were common with "other schizophrenia patients who are really kind of doing their best." The score, he said, "concerned" him but it did not provide enough useful data to do the test again.

Razumov's attorney Harley Breite has continuously raised concerns his client could not assist him in his own defense due to communication issues. During an evaluation in January, Breite said Razumov purportedly told a doctor he believed the judge was "motivated to convict him" and believed he was facing "between 30 and 120 years in prison, if convicted."

In March 2019, two months after a judge deemed him competent, Razumov appeared in court confused and unable to state where he was, telling Breite his name was "Nicky Astro" — a move that prosecutors argued was a feigned attempt to delay trial.

Palmer said that a symptom of believing you are someone else isn't something seen often in schizophrenia, but said the mental illness "could present in a myriad of ways."

Razumov used a mobility cane and was wearing sunglasses as sheriff's officers escorted him to his seat Wednesday. He did not speak and appeared stoic during the hearing as his mother, who has appeared at all court hearings, sat in the courtroom.

Several family members of the victim were also present in court.

Sommer, who worked from 1993 until her retirement in 1999 as a licensed practical nurse at Sunrise House rehabilitation center in Lafayette, was found stabbed to death in her home by state police after friends became worried that something bad had happened to her when she did not respond to phone calls.

Razumov is also facing charges of felony murder, burglary, theft and weapons offenses.

Authorities say six days later while searching the Razumov house, which is a half-mile from Sommer's home, police found some of her jewelry in the yard and a bloody piece of paper in Razumov's room. Razumov allegedly grabbed the paper from a detective's hand, ran around the house in an attempt to destroy it and tried to eat it.

An attorney-only conference is expected to take place in June.

Lori Comstock can also be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Wantage NJ: Victor Razumov competency examined for trial