OCTOBER 27 – A Gainesville man charged with murdering his father in April 2018 was admitted to a mental health facility on Thursday where he could have spent the rest of his life, court officials say. .
Daniel Wallis Burchardt, 27, was charged in May 2018 with malice and felony murder for bludgeoning the father of Tony Louis Burchardt, 52, over the head on April 5, 2018.
Superior Court Judge Kathleen Gosselin ruled in September that Burchard, who had been evaluated several times by mental health professionals, was incapable of standing trial and unable to regain his ability.
Burchardt attended a hearing via Zoom on Thursday, October 27, where prosecutors, defense attorneys, and Gosseln discussed Burchardt’s potential lifelong civil liability.
“I believe he is a danger both to himself and to other people,” Gosselin discussed the standards of commitment.
The judge also said he felt Burchart met other criteria that he was unable to care for himself and needed an in-hospital treatment program.
According to court documents, doctors in the Behavioral Health and Developmental Disorders Division said Barchart’s schizophrenia symptoms, including thought blocks and confusion, “affect his ability to communicate rationally and coherently, and his lawyers It impairs the ability to adequately support
When a person is committed as a citizen to a mental health facility, there is an annual review to ensure that the person meets the criteria for committing to that facility.
Defense attorney Chris Van Rossem said a person can only commit what the maximum sentence for his crime is.In Burchardt’s case, murder with malice carries a life sentence.
“For the crimes he’s been charged with, he could face civil charges for the rest of his life,” Van Rossem said.
Gosselin told Burchardt that he was allowed to speak at the hearing. The man only said he was grateful to the judge for allowing him to attend the hearing.
Van Rossem said he felt the solution was “the right one, given everything we know and have learned about his mental state.”
