Rest in peace, Anna :[
Sullivan acquitted of teen's murder by reason of insanity
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
By STEPHANIE RICE, Columbian Staff Writer
A judge ruled on Tuesday that David B. Sullivan was not guilty by reason of insanity of first-degree murder in the April 20, 2006, stabbing death of teenager Anna Svidersky.
Sullivan, 29, will be committed indefinitely to a state mental hospital.
Clark County Superior Court Judge John Nichols announced his decision after court-appointed defense attorney Gerry Wear and Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Fairgrieve made closing arguments. The two presented a half-dozen expert witnesses during a two-day hearing last week that focused on Sullivan's mental state at the time of the stabbing.
Had Nichols decided that Sullivan had not proven that he was insane, then Sullivan could have taken his argument to a jury trial.
Psychiatrists and psychologists who testified for the state and the defense agreed that Sullivan suffers from schizophrenia and is mildly retarded, with an IQ of approximately 67. Doctors who testified for the state said Sullivan's mental impairments didn't interfer with his ability to understand what he was doing was wrong.
Defense witnesses, however, argued that Sullivan was delusional.
No one disputed that Sullivan stabbed Svidersky.
Sullivan, who was living with his parents because of his inability to hold down a job, walked into a McDonald's restaurant on Andresen Road and approached Svidersky, 17, a Fort Vancouver High School student who was on a break from her shift. He stabbed her and left the restaurant. One of Svidersky's co-workers followed Sullivan and kept him in his sight until police arrived.
An audiotape of a 90-minute interview of Sullivan by detectives from the Vancouver Police Department was played in court last week. Anyone who listened to the tape "will have little doubt that (Sullivan's) grasp on reality is nonexistent," Nichols said.
Nichols will sign final orders on July 3 to have Sullivan transferred from the Clark County Jail to Western State Hospital near Tacoma. Sullivan will have to remain at the hospital until a judge finds that he no longer presents a danger to himself or others.
Had he been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have faced a minimum of 22 years in prison.
After the hearing, Wear was the first to point out that Nichols' ruling did not mean that Sullivan was going free.
The sentence to Western State may well end up being a life term, Wear said.
I hope he fucking goes to jail. I hope he fucking gets extremely ill and dies, or kills himself.
He better rot in hell for a fucking eternity. WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT.