CNN
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A clinical psychologist called by the defense on Thursday at the death penalty trial for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter highlighted the defendant’s troubled childhood and pointed to its effects. The trauma that put him at risk for mental illness.
Dr. Katherine Porterfield gave a detailed account of Robert Bowers’ childhood and adulthood, suggesting that he moved from one treatment center to another in fear of his illness. emotional well-being from teachers and others. She also noted her multiple suicide attempts.
Ms Porterfield said Bowers had suicidal thoughts by age 10, calling it “amazing and extraordinary”.
“He’s telling people, ‘I don’t want to live,'” she says.
Porterfield’s testimony comes as defense attorneys argue with a federal jury that Bowers has serious mental health problems and should be sentenced to life in prison rather than the death penalty. But prosecutors said the shooting showed broad planning and a clear intent that, in his own words, “all the Jews had to die.”
Bowers, 50, found In June, he was found guilty of 63 counts of killing 11 worshippers. Six people were injured at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, making it the deadliest attack on American Jews in history. Twenty-two of these charges were capital offenses and will therefore be subject to the death penalty in the second stage of the trial.
Mr. Porterfield testified Thursday that teachers in Bowers’ first and fourth grade classes were concerned about his emotional behavior. According to Porterfield, they noted that Bowers had problems socializing and that attempts to intervene were ignored or rejected.
In a chaotic eighth grade event that was a “crisis” for Bowers, Porterfield said he chased his mother with a flammable liquid and tried to set the liquid on fire. Bowers was admitted to the adult psychiatric ward at McKeesport Hospital after the incident, which Porterfield said was “quite unusual for a 13-year-old just turned 13.”
“He’s out of control. Totally out of control kid,” Porterfield said. “What we’re seeing here is poor emotional control. He can’t handle his emotions.”
At another psychiatric center, doctors described Bowers as depressed, rebellious and bizarre, with poor social skills and few friends, Porterfield said.
Ms Porterfield said Ms Bowers faced unusual neglect from her caregivers as an adolescent and experienced severe depression. According to her, he acted self-destructive, dropped out of school, and attempted suicide at least four times. Two of the suicide attempts were between the ages of 16 and 17, Porterfield said. In one instance, he overdosed on aspirin. In another incident, Bowers drank grain alcohol and lit a cigarette in the car, causing severe burns, Porterfield said.
Bowers’ instability persisted into adulthood, she testified, without ongoing meaningful interventions to address decades of mental illness and minimal functioning.
Mr. Bowers was also financially unstable, working “intermittently” in inconsistent jobs and holding just one job at the bakery for 15 years, Porterfield said. Ultimately, he was fired in 2004 for stealing money.
Mr Porterfield said the Bowers family has its own deep-rooted problems of substance abuse, violence and mental instability, and lacks attention to Robert’s problems. Ms. Bowers had several traumatic life events and situations that put her at risk of developing severe mental illness and problems, Porterfield concluded.
Federal prosecutor Nicole Vazquez Schmidt cross-examined Porterfield and asked whether he had interviewed Bowers for analysis. Porterfield replied “no”. She said the key source came from the defendant’s mother.
Schmidt asked Porterfield about a note in which her mother said she was “emotionally, cognitively and socially disabled.” Schmidt later questioned the accuracy of her mother’s testimony and story. She also asked Porterfield if she was exaggerating because of her love for her son. Ms Porterfield said she believed her mother’s testimony was honest and true.
Porterfield testified Wednesday that Bowers’ parents, Barbara Jenkins and Randall Bowers, provided him with a precarious home environment throughout his infancy and early childhood.
She said the ‘volume’ of trauma really matters when caregivers are a source of fear, sadness, and terror rather than providing a caring environment. It’s called betrayal trauma, she says.
According to Porterfield, Randall Bowers had a precarious childhood. He was held in a psychiatric ward at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, she said. She said he attempted suicide by jumping off a ship into Guantanamo Bay after being released from a psychiatric ward.
Porterfield testified that his parents threatened to kill his son.
At one point, Jenkins said he threatened to throw Robert out the window from the third floor of his apartment. Randall Bowers also threatened to kill himself by turning on the gas in his apartment. They were “clearly out of control young parents,” she said.
Her parents eventually separated, and Jenkins married Robert Sater and moved with her son to a trailer park in Florida, Porterfield said. Air Force records show Ms Seiter was in the Air Force, but was later disqualified for her service and was admitted to a mental hospital on the Air Force base.
Porterfield testified that Seiter was later arrested and convicted of child molestation and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Jenkins returned to cutting herself in front of Robert Bowers and was hospitalized with depression and anxiety, Porterfield said.
Dr. Porterfield testified that he also had unstable grandparents around him.
By the age of three, Bowers had lived with two men who were “very mentally ill and violent men.” The two have been charged with sex crimes, Porterfield said.
Mr. Porterfield testified that Ms. Bowers had a chronic traumatic experience and chronic traumatic stress that was not a one-off event. Every negative event in a child’s life adds up to worse outcomes, she says.
