Why murder suspects are being released from mental facilities in Oklahoma

At least four murder suspects have been released from state mental facilities in the last year and a half after being deemed no longer a threat, court records show.

All have been recharged and arrested again.

They include a Norman man accused of beheading a neighbor in 1996 at a boarding house near the University of Oklahoma. Prosecutors first learned from his sister that he was to be released.

They also include an Oklahoma City man accused of killing his mother, sister, his 16-year-old niece and infant nephew in 2013. Police reported he said they were keeping him from actress and singer Selena Gomez.

All four had been civilly committed to facilities run by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Their original murder cases were dismissed after they were ruled to be mentally incompetent.

A fifth murder suspect, who was once on death row, was recharged Tuesday ahead of his release from a mental facility.

'We're now in a revolving door, right?'

The releases have put mental health officials at odds with prosecutors, who say the public is being put at risk.

One district attorney directly accused the department of letting patients out for space reasons. The department said that is "completely false."

"There's ... a (U.S.) Supreme Court case that says that you cannot hold somebody with mental illness who's no longer dangerous, they have to be released," said Durand Crosby, senior deputy commissioner at the Department of Mental Health.

What is frustrating to prosecutors is that recharged suspects usually turn out to be still incompetent and wind up back in a state facility anyway.

"We're now in a revolving door, right?" said Oklahoma County's new district attorney, Vicki Behenna.

"They're being released. Charges have been refiled," she said. "There's an issue as to whether or not they'll be competent to stand trial. There will be an evaluation, then there will be a hearing ... It's like a loop."

She said a legislative fix may be necessary. "It's exhausting for everybody involved."

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Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler contends the releases are coming because the state no longer has room for all the mentally ill who need in-patient treatment.

"It's unacceptable to me that we do not dedicate enough resources towards the housing of these people," he said.

He said the public is seeing the ill effects of the decision to close Eastern State Hospital in Vinita and "condense it all down into a very small facility that we now call the Oklahoma Forensic Center."

"You can see people walking the streets who have obvious, clear mental health issues. You have people who are committing crimes, that are a threat to themselves and other people," Kunzweiler said.

At its peak in the mid-1950s, Eastern State Hospital had 2,600 patients, according to the Department of Mental Health's website.

Its replacement, the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita, has 216 beds, plus 80 more coming. Also, a converted residential substance abuse treatment center across the street has 50.

Crosby, though, said patients at the Oklahoma Forensic Center are moved to Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman once they are civilly committed. It has 120 beds.

"I would say on any given day, Griffin's not full," the deputy commissioner said. "And, if it is full, we usually have beds at one of our other inpatient facilities.

"One of the things that's not talked about is just literally thousands of people ... go through these systems," he also said. "We only focus on those one or two who really catch our eye."

What does Oklahoma law say?

Only a judge can approve the release of a patient found not guilty by reason of insanity or, as it is called now, not guilty by reason of mental illness. Those patients also are housed at the Oklahoma Forensic Center.

That safeguard is not in place for patients who have been found mentally incompetent.

Under a 2004 Oklahoma law, an incompetent criminal defendant can be held for no more than two years on a felony case. After that, the charge must be dismissed, and the person civilly committed.

Then, the person gets in-patient treatment only until no longer a threat. "Holding a person on a civil commitment past the time the person is considered dangerous to self or others is a violation of both state law and the individual's civil rights," the Department of Mental Health said, citing a 1975 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Judges routinely order the Department of Mental Health to notify prosecutors before a suspect's release. In some orders, the notice has been as little as 48 hours, court records show.

"I think there may be some variance, but I would say 90% of the time it's 15 days," Crosby said.

Prosecutors don't always file charges again, he also said.

More: Oklahoma's top mental health commissioner stepping down

"I know that there have been people who have gone from us to like a nursing home," the mental health official said. "They'll say, 'You know what, we're just not going to file. We'll go with your discharge plan.'"

A defendant is deemed mentally incompetent if he is unable to understand the nature of his charges and cannot assist his attorneys.

Many such defendants regains competency before two years pass. "We are successful most of the time," Crosby said.

The cases then go forward like any other. A few end up being acquitted on insanity grounds, meaning they did not know what they were doing was wrong at the time.

The Department of Mental Health will not say who it has released because of the federal law restricting release of medical information and other confidentiality requirements.

The Oklahoman reviewed dozens of murder cases and questioned prosecutors to identify the released suspects and the one who is about to get out.

The Oklahoman also discovered a sixth murder suspect was working at a McDonald's restaurant after being declared incompetent.

That suspect had been placed with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, rather than the Department of Mental Health, because he was found to be incompetent due to a low IQ. He is now accused of acting inappropriately with two co-workers at the restaurant.

Here is a look at all six:

James Gainer

James Gainer was first charged with first-degree murder in 2018 after a fatal beating in Tulsa.

He was so disoriented after his arrest that he could not be interviewed, police reported. He told a defense investigator he did not trust people with blue, brown, black or green eyes, only red, his attorney wrote in a court filing.

His case was dismissed in 2021 because of incompetency. He was then sent to Griffin Memorial Hospital on a civil commitment.

Gainer, now 65, was charged again last year after prosecutors were notified he was being released. His new case was dismissed in September so he could be civilly committed again.

Cameron Lee Smith

Cameron Lee Smith was first charged in 1996 after a neighbor was stabbed to death and beheaded at a Norman boarding house.

He put the victim's head in a backpack and carried it to a dumpster, police reported. Witnesses said he was naked.

His case was dismissed in 2005 after the new competency law went into effect. In dozens of letters filed in court since then, he has written about artificial intelligence, reincarnation and being a prophet of God.

Smith, now 61, was charged again in May after prosecutors learned from his sister he was being released. She had thought he was still in Vinita.

"She sent him a care package," Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn said. "It got returned. She called up there. They said, 'Oh, he's been moved to Norman for release.' That's when she called us.

"She ... did not want to see him on the outside. She loves her brother, wants him to be fine, just knows that he's still a risk to be out in the community. And she shared that with us."

The district attorney said he was disappointed he had not heard first from the Department of Mental Health about the planned release. The Department of Mental Health insisted, without talking about specific cases, that it would never release such individuals without notifying the district attorney.

Jerome Rondell Cooper

Jerome Rondell Cooper was first charged with first-degree murder in 2005 after a fatal beating in Oklahoma City. The charge was dismissed in 2008 because of incompetency.

He was charged again in 2009. The second case was dismissed in 2012. He was charged a third time last year. That case was dismissed in May. He is now 37.

Daniel Livingston Green

Daniel Livingston Green was charged with first-degree murder after a fatal shooting in Oklahoma City in 2013.

Killed were his mother, his sister, his niece and his nephew. His father told police he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic.

"Green would not directly say that he murdered his family members in the house," police reported in a court affidavit after his arrest. "He did state he could have 'emptied a magazine on them' but doesn't remember because he blacked out and it was a blur."

Green also told police "he had to get away from his family members because they were stopping him from being with his one true love." His father said he was talking about Selena Gomez and had been fixated on her for years.

The case was dismissed in 2016 because of incompetency.

Green, now 50, was charged again last year after Griffin Memorial Hospital notified prosecutors he was being released. "Out on his own and without his medications, there's no guarantee he wouldn't go back to his homicidal ways," David Prater, then Oklahoma County's district attorney, said at the time.

The new case is in the process of being dismissed because he remains incompetent.

John Paul Washington

John Paul Washington spent years on death row after a jury convicted him of the 1984 murder of a Tinker Air Force Base airman and the rape of the airman's wife.

His conviction was overturned in 1992, but he was not retried because of competency issues. His case was dismissed in 2005, and he was civilly committed. He has spent most of his time in Vinita.

He also was not charged because of his mental issues after being linked by DNA to a 1982 rape and strangulation death in Oklahoma City.

Behenna confirmed in September her office had been notified he was getting ready to be released. She said she asked for more information from the Department of Mental Health so she can decide whether to prosecute him further.

"I need to know what he is," she said. "I don't know if he is medication compliant. I don't know if he is still suffering from a mental disease or defect. So I've asked for that evaluation so that we can make an informed decision."

Washington, 69, was recharged Tuesday, ahead of his release, in the death of the airman and the rape of the airman's wife.

Roy Curtis Zornes Jr.

Roy Curtis Zornes Jr. was charged with first-degree murder, rape, burglary and arson in 2010 after his former foster mother was beaten to death at her home in Tishimingo.

A judge in 2011 found him incompetent because of his low IQ and placed him with the Department of Human Services' Office of the Public Guardian.

He is now accused in a misdemeanor assault charge of grabbing two co-workers at a McDonald's restaurant in Purcell in April.

Both victims were 17-year-old girls, according to the charge.

Police reported one said he touched her arms and shoulders for no reason and brushed up against the front of her body. "She said this has been going on since October of 2022 and escalated in the last couple of months," an officer wrote in a court affidavit

Police reported the other girl said he had cornered her against the frappe machine and then grabbed her wrist and wouldn't let go.

The Department of Human Services declined to answer questions about why Zornes, now 37, was working at a McDonald's.

"Public Guardian records are confidential by state law, so we are unable to publicly share information about this case with anyone not authorized by statute," it said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 4 murder suspects released from Oklahoma mental facilities since 2022