PC-GUY
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Prosecutors to fight release of killer
Mentally ill Troy man beat his mother to death in 2000
BY L.L. BRASIER
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER[/FONT]
February 2, 2006
State psychiatrists say a Troy man who bludgeoned and mutilated his mother to death in 2000 should be released from an institution, placed in a group home and eventually returned to the community because his mental illness is in remission.
Oakland County prosecutors, however, plan to fight his release at a hearing Wednesday.
James Yang, 30, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Oakland County Circuit Court in 2001 after he beat his mother, Kazuyo Yang, 58, to death with a chair leg, crowbar, hammer and iron weights in their Troy home. He used a hacksaw to cut off her face and then ate her eyes.
Yang, who has schizophrenia, has spent the last two years under psychiatric care at the Caro Regional Mental Health Center in the western Thumb. Doctors there determined in November that he has improved enough to begin assimilating back into the community. An independent committee of doctors at the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti that is charged with reviewing such cases agrees and has recommended that Yang be allowed to leave the mental hospital.
"Yes, he couldn't have committed a worse crime," his attorney, Scott Neumann, said Wednesday. "But the question is: What do you do with him? Do you penalize him forever? The community would say, 'Yes, lock him up forever.' But he is not a danger, and under the law, he will eventually be released."
A hearing on the matter will be held in Tuscola County Probate Court in Caro on Wednesday, although the jurisdiction of the case remains in Oakland County. Lisa Ortlieb, Oakland County assistant prosecutor, said her office will fight the release.
"It's unbelieveable," Ortlieb said. "This is a man who brutally, brutally murdered his mother. What's to keep him from going off his medicine and harming another person?"
The judge will ultimately decide, although judges generally follow the recommendations of experts. Prosecutors are expected to ask the court to allow them to have Yang evaluated by their own psychiatrists.
Yang will be placed by Oakland's Community Mental Health Authority in a supervised group home with others recovering from mental illness and will not be allowed to leave or be left unattended. If he remains well, he will eventually, with doctors' approval, be allowed to live on his own.
The killing shocked police officers who arrived at the Yang home on May 1, 2000.
Yang, according to reports, was clearly in a psychotic state and could not tell police his name or whether he was a man or a woman. He believed his mother was the devil. Police at first could not determine her gender because her body was so badly mutiliated.
Eric Hufnagel, chief executive officer of the National Schizophrenia Foundation, based in Lansing, said statistics show people who suffer from the disease are no more violent than the general public. Violence among those with schizophrenia is more likely to occur soon after patients are released from the hospital and if there are substance abuse problems.
"I don't think that it's fair to assume that that is something that is going to repeat itself," he said. "I know of people who committed an act of violence once and never have again."
Mentally ill Troy man beat his mother to death in 2000
BY L.L. BRASIER
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER[/FONT]
February 2, 2006
State psychiatrists say a Troy man who bludgeoned and mutilated his mother to death in 2000 should be released from an institution, placed in a group home and eventually returned to the community because his mental illness is in remission.
Oakland County prosecutors, however, plan to fight his release at a hearing Wednesday.
James Yang, 30, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Oakland County Circuit Court in 2001 after he beat his mother, Kazuyo Yang, 58, to death with a chair leg, crowbar, hammer and iron weights in their Troy home. He used a hacksaw to cut off her face and then ate her eyes.
Yang, who has schizophrenia, has spent the last two years under psychiatric care at the Caro Regional Mental Health Center in the western Thumb. Doctors there determined in November that he has improved enough to begin assimilating back into the community. An independent committee of doctors at the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti that is charged with reviewing such cases agrees and has recommended that Yang be allowed to leave the mental hospital.
"Yes, he couldn't have committed a worse crime," his attorney, Scott Neumann, said Wednesday. "But the question is: What do you do with him? Do you penalize him forever? The community would say, 'Yes, lock him up forever.' But he is not a danger, and under the law, he will eventually be released."
A hearing on the matter will be held in Tuscola County Probate Court in Caro on Wednesday, although the jurisdiction of the case remains in Oakland County. Lisa Ortlieb, Oakland County assistant prosecutor, said her office will fight the release.
"It's unbelieveable," Ortlieb said. "This is a man who brutally, brutally murdered his mother. What's to keep him from going off his medicine and harming another person?"
The judge will ultimately decide, although judges generally follow the recommendations of experts. Prosecutors are expected to ask the court to allow them to have Yang evaluated by their own psychiatrists.
Yang will be placed by Oakland's Community Mental Health Authority in a supervised group home with others recovering from mental illness and will not be allowed to leave or be left unattended. If he remains well, he will eventually, with doctors' approval, be allowed to live on his own.
The killing shocked police officers who arrived at the Yang home on May 1, 2000.
Yang, according to reports, was clearly in a psychotic state and could not tell police his name or whether he was a man or a woman. He believed his mother was the devil. Police at first could not determine her gender because her body was so badly mutiliated.
Eric Hufnagel, chief executive officer of the National Schizophrenia Foundation, based in Lansing, said statistics show people who suffer from the disease are no more violent than the general public. Violence among those with schizophrenia is more likely to occur soon after patients are released from the hospital and if there are substance abuse problems.
"I don't think that it's fair to assume that that is something that is going to repeat itself," he said. "I know of people who committed an act of violence once and never have again."
