Attorney wants judge to change Harper guilty plea
Years of untreated mental illness, coupled with binge drinking and family strife led a 72-year-old Portersville man to attempt to murder another man, according to expert testimony from a forensic psychologist Wednesday.
Paul Harper pleaded guilty on March 4 to attempted criminal homicide, but on Wednesday his lawyer, Laurel Gift, requested that Judge William Shaffer change Harper’s guilty plea to guilty but mentally ill, a designation that wouldn’t change the sentencing guidelines, but would allow Harper to get mental health treatment if he goes to prison. Harper has yet to be sentenced.
To support Gift’s request, she called on forensic psychologist Bruce Chambers, who was hired by the defense team to diagnose Harper earlier this year.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Zanella objected to the altered designation, arguing that it’s impossible to go back in time and diagnose Harper. Judge William Shaffer, presiding over the case, will make a decision after reviewing the material.
“He’s suffered from a consistent decline over the years that unfortunately led to the incident,” Chambers said. “This is a seriously mentally ill man.”
Harper pleaded guilty to shooting Christopher Galbreath on July 3, 2017 over the sale of a Ford vehicle. The incident was caused by psychotic depression, schizophrenia and delusional thinking — “a particularly potent combination,” Chambers said.
Chambers added that he diagnosed Harper this year in Butler County Prison, where Harper has been since his arrest on July 4, 2017. Chambers said that Harper suffers from severe depression and hasn’t been treated for the condition during his incarceration.
When Harper was first sent to jail, he went on a hunger strike in an attempt to end his own life, according to Chambers. Based on Harper’s current mental status, Chambers concluded that at the time of the shooting in 2017, Harper “was under the influence of significant mental illness combined with alcohol.” But he noted that he wasn’t suggesting Harper was insane.
In Zanella’s objection, he said that Harper will be free to receive medical treatment in the state prison system, regardless of the guilty plea having a mental illness designation.
“I don’t have any doubts as to his mental illness in the present days,” Zanella said. “But I don’t think we could say he was guilty, but mentally ill.”
