Opinion ID: 1466528
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pretrial Events

Text: When appointed counsel first visited Vaca at the Platte County jail, Dr. Anya, the county jail psychiatrist, had already been attending to Vaca. Dr. Anya suspected that Vaca suffered from mental illness and had prescribed a regimen of Trazadone, Paxil, Clonazepam, and Zyprexa. In response to both this and Vaca's overall demeanor, defense counsel enlisted the services of Dr. Bill Geis, a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist, to determine Vaca's competency to stand trial and whether he had diminished capacity. Dr. Geis interviewed Vaca and administered various psychological tests. This included the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale to determine Vaca's cognitive ability. The results showed that Vaca had an overall IQ of 73, which was confirmed by Vaca's school records. Two tests designed to detect the presence of schizophrenia were also administered. Both came back suggesting a schizophrenic condition. Dr. Geis also reviewed a Social Security Administration determination assessing a disability due in part to schizophrenia, which confirmed his results. Other medical records indicated that Vaca crashed his bicycle in 1988, which resulted in head trauma and a blood clot. Dr. Geis' report also documented a violent history including incidents in which Vaca stabbed an elementary school classmate with a pencil, punched a woman who allegedly made comments about him and physically fought with family members. Ultimately, Dr. Geis' report concluded: The defendant has a serious mental diseaseschizophreniathat clearly could have had an impact on his ability to form rational thought and conform his behavior to the expectations of society at the time of the offense. This condition of schizophrenia is corroborated by other medical personnel and appears to have been in existence for most of his life. He also has a condition of low intelligence (borderline intellectual functioning) that could have affected his ability to understand the impact of his actions. Neither Dr. Geis nor defense counsel remembers discussing the report with each other, but both testified that it was standard practice to discuss any prepared psychological report. Both had vague recollections of a discussion and ultimately concluded that one must have occurred.