Opinion ID: 1279824
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Psychiatric Testimony for the Jury.

Text: Both Drs. Baldwin and Kenney supplied evidence for the jury concerning Terry Reynolds' personality disorders. According to Dr. Baldwin, at the time of the shooting Reynolds had elements of three different personality disorders: narcissistic, borderline, and antisocial. One with a narcissistic personality disorder has a tendency to react with rage or intense despair if he facesif he is forced to face inadequacies or forced to endure criticism. A borderline personality disorder, in part, prevents one from handling stress. A person who has an antisocial personality disorder has no ability to delay gratification of his urges. Dr. Baldwin further explained that impulsivity is a characteristic of all three of the aforementioned personality disorders and that Reynolds displayed impulsive behavior, which is distinguished from rational behavior in that impulsive behavior excludes an evaluation of actions and the options ... choices ... the ways [one] can get this urge met ... the consequences of meeting the urge.... Dr. Baldwin concluded his testimony by expressing that Terry Reynolds was an impulsive individual. Pursuant to the court's ruling on the State's motions in limine, defense counsel refrained from eliciting Dr. Baldwin's opinion that Reynolds had neither deliberated nor premeditated shooting Craig Dodge. Dr. Kenney testified that Reynolds displayed a history of poor impulse control... chaotic handling of anger with explosive rage. Also, Reynolds manifested excessive autistic thinking, which, according to Dr. Kenney, means that [p]eople have a fantasy life and their relationship with daydreaming and reality has a clear-cut boundary and in autistic thinking, a person gets into his daydreaming, if you will, and the use of fantasy and the line between reality and the fantasy gets a little blurred.... Dr. Kenney also felt that Reynolds indicated poor impulse control and was more impulsive than the average person. Explaining the relationship between autistic thinking and impulsivity, Dr. Kenney testified: [I]f you believe a plan has to go a certain way, and it doesn't go that way, then you have two choices. You can sit back and figure out another plan in a deliberate fashion, I guess I would say or calculated fashion, or you could just operate on impulse.... That is impulsive behavior.... [P]oor impulse control, according to Dr. Kenney, may result in primitive maneuvers, such as threats and violence, that is, one with poor impulse control goes into a primitive way of dealing with ... stress by becoming violent. Since Reynolds displayed poor impulse control, when Reynolds was under stress, he would go back to what worked before, temper. He has never really broken that pattern.... He is still under stress and tries to deal with it by temper and threatening behavior.... Regarding Reynolds' manner of solving any problem, Dr. Kenney related: As Terry described dealing with problems in his life, he describes, you know, deciding how things should go as he attempts to problem solve. He attempts whatever plans he lays out. Should it not work, he does what he thinks he wants to do. Should it not work, where he runs into complications, he traditionally does three things. He escalates the intensity of the demand, you know, or creates an uproar and if that doesn't work, then he attempts in his own way to explain it away, and if that doesn't work, then he acts impulsively. Specifically, in reference to events surrounding the Dodge death, according to Dr. Kenney, when Reynolds was in the process of leaving the apartment, he leaves the house, he is going over and making love to that lady because in his fantasy life, in his autistic life, that is what he wants to do and he thinks it will work and it doesn't work, you know, and he is left without a contingency plan other than maybe violence, which in his case probably isn't thought about, he doesn't do problem solving. He doesn't, if you will, meditate on things the way other people do because of the autistic thing. He plans a scenario and it's going to work and that is as far as it goes. He doesn't go back again and say what happens is she says no. So when she says no, he impulsively becomes aggressive, repetition of his style of dealing with frustration and his lack of impulse control. Dr. Kenney noted that Reynolds had a history of difficulties with alcohol consumption and that, consistent with Reynolds' method of solving problems, any person who consumes a great quantity of alcohol will act argumentatively and impulsively or show poor judgment and become physically aggressive. Dr. Kenney also felt that Reynolds was under multiple stresses and dealt with such stresses by becoming violent. Further, Dr. Kenney expressed an opinion that Reynolds' poor impulse control was reflected in the fact that Reynolds beat his wife and the very next moment asked her for sex, conduct which illustrates impulsive and self-defeating behavior with a poor ability to plan. As an explanation for Reynolds' cessation of the attempted forcible sex with Tina Walker, Dr. Kenney testified: Although Terry has impulse control problems, and he has poor frustration tolerance, he can bring his behavior under control. In view of the court's prior ruling on the State's motions in limine, defense counsel did not elicit whether Dr. Kenney had an opinion about deliberateness and premeditation by Reynolds regarding Dodge's death.