Nurse’s Killer Has Serious Mental Illness, Doctor Says After Suspect Eats Feces in Jail
The man who killed a nurse outside of Tuscaloosa's DCH Regional Medical Center earlier this month is clearly suffering from mental illness and will be involuntarily medicated, a judge ruled on Friday.
The decision from Circuit Judge Allen May comes after reports that the murder suspect, Matthew James Taylor, was suffering from a mental break when he killed Ada Doss.
A University of Alabama psychiatrist confirmed that diagnosis in a letter written earlier this week and filed electronically on Friday.
"He has been observed in his cell displaying agitated and restless behavior, such as rocking back and forth and being visibly and verbally upset," she wrote.
She said Taylor has been refusing most meals, and this past Sunday evening, jail staff found him eating his own human waste and smearing it on himself and the walls, then refused commands to come out to be cleaned.
Court documents say deputies talked about using Tasers and did deploy chemical irritants, which had no effect on the inmate.
Detention officers said Taylor also cut himself on the metal frame of his bed while thrashing around in his cell, even as he was still covered in his own waste.
Officers had to force entry into his solitary confinement cell, pin Taylor to a wall and give him an involuntary drug cocktail to make him calm down and rest so he and his cell could be cleaned.
"It is my medical opinion, by clear and convincing evidence, that he has a serious mental illness as well as a severe personality disorder, and his dangerous behaviors are a result of both of these factors in the context of his legal situation," the psychiatrist wrote.
In response, Judge May issued an order allowing Taylor to be involuntarily medicated.
"This court hereby finds that the defendant in this case is a danger to himself and to other individuals, whether they be staff or inmates at Tuscaloosa County Jail," May wrote. "As such, the court hereby orders the Tuscaloosa County Jail, and its mental health staff, to administer such medications it deems medically necessary to treat the Defendant's serious mental illness, regardless of whether the defendant consents to the administration of such medication."
A preliminary hearing in the case is planned for the afternoon of Friday, June 15th.
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