Tale of blood, terror, mercy
winds down at sanity hearing
NEVADA CITY (5/12/03) -- Court proceedings in which a judge will decide whether Scott Harlan Thorpe, 43, was sane when he killed three people and harmed two others Jan. 10, 2001, open Tuesday.
Thorpe has already pleaded guilty in Nevada County Superior Court to three counts of first-degree murder for shooting to death Laura Wilcox, 19, Pearlie Mae Feldman, 68, and Michael Markle, 24.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder for wounding Judith Edzards, 49, and Richard Senuty, 34, in a long day of blood and fear, which began at 11:30 a.m. with unexpected gunshots at the county Behavioral Health Department offices.
It ended some 10 hours later when Thorpe surrendered at his Mooney Flat Road home in Smartsville.
People in Nevada County think of Jan. 10, 2001 as a day of terror. Scott Thorpe's brother, Kent Thorpe, remembers it as a night in Hell.
For Kent Thorpe, a 52-year-old retired Sacramento Police Department sergeant, the morning began with a funeral for one of his brothers-in-law.
Visiting relations from the East Coast were saying with him for the event, said Thorpe, who was a police negotiator.
Late that afternoon close friends who were struggling to cope with a troubled 16year-old daughter arrived at Thorpe's home seeking advice.
"We were all sitting around the kitchen table trying to figure how we could help the girl" when about 5:30 p.m. the telephone rang, Thorpe said.
It was his brother, Scott, who under treatment and medication for a potpourri of anxieties, including agoraphobia and paranoia.
"He had difficulty being in crowded rooms and he thought the FBI was after him," Kent Thorpe said.
Scott Thorpe was quite aware of is problems and, oddly enough, everyone in the family knew when they had gotten out of hand.
"One day in January, 1999 he went to Roseville to buy a pickup," Kent Thorpe said.
Something strange happened that day, as Scott Thorpe explained to his brother. Somehow, he blacked out. Lost four hours of time and woke up on a settee at the dealership.
Somewhere in the interior shadows of his mind, Scott Thorpe reached the conclusion the FBI was to blame.
"He was also convinced the dealer had rolled back the mileage on the truck," Kent Thorpe said.
Kent Thorpe would not talk about what he and his brother talked about on the night in question, but his next step was to notify the Nevada County sheriff.
"It took two hours to get the SWAT team in place. They didn't want me to call him back before they were ready, but he called me, and I told him, 'You're surrounded'," Thorpe said.
"He was relieved to know it wasn't the FBI," Thorpe said.
But while the night may have been winding down for Scott, for Kent it was practically just beginning.
"I sat there, watching him being taken away in a patrol car. Then phone rang again. It was my other brother-in-law in Alaska. His best friend had just died and he wanted to talk," Kent Thorpe.
A judge deemed Scott Thorpe incompetent to stand trial and he was shipped to a state mental facility in March 2001, for treatment.
A year and a half later, doctors declared Thorpe able to understand legal proceedings, and he was returned to Nevada County to stand trial on pleas of not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity.
Thorpe's separate decisions to plead guilty and to leave it up to a judge, rather than a jury, to decide his fate has shortened the remaining matters. Across the board, law enforcement officials, the families of the victims and of the defendant are looking for closure.
"All we want is what's best for Scott Thorpe, considering his condition. We also want to make sure he never walks the streets again," said Margie Markle, mother of victim Mike Markle.
The compassion the victim relatives have shown Thorpe and his family is surprising, given the nature of the crime and the way reality television portrays things these days, but for Margie Markle, a teacher at Notre Dame School in Marysville, it all makes sense.
"None of us had met before the day Scott pleaded guilty. The devastation they (Kent Thorpe and his wife) felt for us, made us feel devastated for them," Markle said.
People who have come to know Scott Thorpe since the terrible day, attribute part of the compassionate mood to the defendant's peculiar likeability.
"But for his intense delusions, he's a very nice guy," Nevada County Public Defender Tom Anderson said.
"As long as you talk about camping, or fishing, or animals, he's fine. But if you talk about that day, he's back on the FBI. He's absolutely convinced they're after him," Kent Thorpe said.
The sanity proceedings are expected to take about 10 court days, with more than a dozen people -- including expert psychiatric witnesses -- testifying.
Superior Court Judge Carl F. Bryan is expected to rule that Thorpe is either sane and must spend the rest of his life in state prison with no hope of parole, or go to a state mental facility for an indefinite period, according to District Attorney Michael Ferguson.
If placed in a mental institution, he can never be found restored to sanity and released, unless a Nevada County jury agrees to it, Ferguson said.
Sacramento Bee
winds down at sanity hearing
NEVADA CITY (5/12/03) -- Court proceedings in which a judge will decide whether Scott Harlan Thorpe, 43, was sane when he killed three people and harmed two others Jan. 10, 2001, open Tuesday.
Thorpe has already pleaded guilty in Nevada County Superior Court to three counts of first-degree murder for shooting to death Laura Wilcox, 19, Pearlie Mae Feldman, 68, and Michael Markle, 24.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder for wounding Judith Edzards, 49, and Richard Senuty, 34, in a long day of blood and fear, which began at 11:30 a.m. with unexpected gunshots at the county Behavioral Health Department offices.
It ended some 10 hours later when Thorpe surrendered at his Mooney Flat Road home in Smartsville.
People in Nevada County think of Jan. 10, 2001 as a day of terror. Scott Thorpe's brother, Kent Thorpe, remembers it as a night in Hell.
For Kent Thorpe, a 52-year-old retired Sacramento Police Department sergeant, the morning began with a funeral for one of his brothers-in-law.
Visiting relations from the East Coast were saying with him for the event, said Thorpe, who was a police negotiator.
Late that afternoon close friends who were struggling to cope with a troubled 16year-old daughter arrived at Thorpe's home seeking advice.
"We were all sitting around the kitchen table trying to figure how we could help the girl" when about 5:30 p.m. the telephone rang, Thorpe said.
It was his brother, Scott, who under treatment and medication for a potpourri of anxieties, including agoraphobia and paranoia.
"He had difficulty being in crowded rooms and he thought the FBI was after him," Kent Thorpe said.
Scott Thorpe was quite aware of is problems and, oddly enough, everyone in the family knew when they had gotten out of hand.
"One day in January, 1999 he went to Roseville to buy a pickup," Kent Thorpe said.
Something strange happened that day, as Scott Thorpe explained to his brother. Somehow, he blacked out. Lost four hours of time and woke up on a settee at the dealership.
Somewhere in the interior shadows of his mind, Scott Thorpe reached the conclusion the FBI was to blame.
"He was also convinced the dealer had rolled back the mileage on the truck," Kent Thorpe said.
Kent Thorpe would not talk about what he and his brother talked about on the night in question, but his next step was to notify the Nevada County sheriff.
"It took two hours to get the SWAT team in place. They didn't want me to call him back before they were ready, but he called me, and I told him, 'You're surrounded'," Thorpe said.
"He was relieved to know it wasn't the FBI," Thorpe said.
But while the night may have been winding down for Scott, for Kent it was practically just beginning.
"I sat there, watching him being taken away in a patrol car. Then phone rang again. It was my other brother-in-law in Alaska. His best friend had just died and he wanted to talk," Kent Thorpe.
A judge deemed Scott Thorpe incompetent to stand trial and he was shipped to a state mental facility in March 2001, for treatment.
A year and a half later, doctors declared Thorpe able to understand legal proceedings, and he was returned to Nevada County to stand trial on pleas of not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity.
Thorpe's separate decisions to plead guilty and to leave it up to a judge, rather than a jury, to decide his fate has shortened the remaining matters. Across the board, law enforcement officials, the families of the victims and of the defendant are looking for closure.
"All we want is what's best for Scott Thorpe, considering his condition. We also want to make sure he never walks the streets again," said Margie Markle, mother of victim Mike Markle.
The compassion the victim relatives have shown Thorpe and his family is surprising, given the nature of the crime and the way reality television portrays things these days, but for Margie Markle, a teacher at Notre Dame School in Marysville, it all makes sense.
"None of us had met before the day Scott pleaded guilty. The devastation they (Kent Thorpe and his wife) felt for us, made us feel devastated for them," Markle said.
People who have come to know Scott Thorpe since the terrible day, attribute part of the compassionate mood to the defendant's peculiar likeability.
"But for his intense delusions, he's a very nice guy," Nevada County Public Defender Tom Anderson said.
"As long as you talk about camping, or fishing, or animals, he's fine. But if you talk about that day, he's back on the FBI. He's absolutely convinced they're after him," Kent Thorpe said.
The sanity proceedings are expected to take about 10 court days, with more than a dozen people -- including expert psychiatric witnesses -- testifying.
Superior Court Judge Carl F. Bryan is expected to rule that Thorpe is either sane and must spend the rest of his life in state prison with no hope of parole, or go to a state mental facility for an indefinite period, according to District Attorney Michael Ferguson.
If placed in a mental institution, he can never be found restored to sanity and released, unless a Nevada County jury agrees to it, Ferguson said.
Sacramento Bee
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