HOT SPRINGS — Killing cats, setting fires, urinating on a friend and eventually killing a homeless man and engaging in sexual acts with his corpse are not signs of mental problems that should get Kevin Ray Pearcy out of a prison sentence for murder, a state psychiatrist told a jury Thursday.
That troubling history of behavior and the murder confession that Pearcy, 34, provided to Dr. Stacy McBain points to personality disorders, not a psychotic diagnosis or lack of culpability that should result in his acquittal on the basis of mental illness, the doctor said.
“It’s unusual, yes,” she said, during testimony on the second day of Pearcy’s capital murder trial.
He’s confessed to police that he stabbed Stacy Jay Lewis to death July 5, 2008.
The defense is not disputing that.
But Garland County Public Defender Mark Fraiser is asking a jury to send Pearcy to the State Hospital for treatment instead of sentencing him to prison.
Prosecutors have waived the death penalty in the case. Pearcy faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Hot Springs police arrested Pearcy after a chance encounter Aug. 11, 2008. An officer thought he looked suspicious walking around a neighborhood, found out he had a misdemeanor warrantand handcuffed him.
On the way to jail, Pearcy blurted out that he killed Lewis to find out what it felt like and to see if he could away with murder, police testified earlier this week.
McBain, who specializes in psychiatry at the State Hospital in Little Rock, disputed a defense-paid psychologist who said Pearcy was “likely” not in control of his behavior at the time of the killing.
“I believe Mr. Kevin Pearcy has a significant mental disorder ... and that if he were not taking his medication at the time of the crime, he would not be able to conform his behavior,” said Mark Clark, a neuropsychologist with decades of mental-health experience.
Clark said he came to his conclusion after a 45-minute jail-cell interview with Pearcy and after reviewing records related to the case.
Clark said Pearcy’s years of documented mental illness, previous diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other illnesses, and his recent report of communicating with God indicates that he suffers from bipolar disorder with psychotic features.
Prosecuting Attorney Steve Oliver challenged Clark’s findings and questioned his credentials and his limited experience with Pearcy.
In a heated exchange with raised voices, the two men talked over each other with members of the jury turning their heads back and forth as if they were at a tennis match.
“Did you ask him if he knew that killing Stacy Lewis was wrong?” Oliver asked, his voice booming in the nearly empty courtroom.
Clark acknowledged that he didn’t ask that question.
The psychologist used Pearcy’s claim that he communicated with God about the murder as an example of his troubled mental state.
Pearcy said his message fromGod came in the form of goosebumps.
“He took that as a sign it was OK,” Clark said.
Oliver countered, “Did he also ask God about having sex with a dead body?”
Ultimately, Clark acknowledged that he could be wrong.
Much of what Pearcy described to authorities about the slaying was later verified during the investigation, testimony revealed.
However, he made some claims that could not be supported by science, leaving Fraiser to wonder if his client was making up certain details for some reason.
For instance, Pearcy said he wrote “catch me if you can” in ink on his dead friend’s leg.
The body, which was wrapped in bedding and an inflatable mattress, was too badly decomposed when it was found in a trash can to know whether something had been written on it, Dr. Frank Peretti said.
The body was “like mush,” said Peretti, who performed Lewis’ autopsy.
Peretti said the decomposition made it impossible to see any signs of sexual abuse.
Pearcy also said he sliced Lewis’ forehead open with his knife, Fraiser noted. Peretti said there were no wounds there.
Lewis was stabbed in the jugular and had defensive wounds on his hands and arms, the doctor found.
The trial before Garland County Circuit Judge John Homer Wright is expected to conclude today.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 12/11/2009