Opinion ID: 2782886
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Dr. Umesh Mhatre

Text: Dr. Mhatre, a psychiatrist who had done “a lot of death row evaluation,” met with Everett on October 16, 2007 for about an hour. Dr. Mhatre testified as to the 41 Case: 14-11857 Date Filed: 02/27/2015 Page: 42 of 87 history of substance abuse that Everett reported during his interview. Specifically, Everett told Dr. Mhatre that Sidney gave him his first beer at around eight years old and that Everett sometimes would drink between twelve and eighteen beers a day. At some point, Everett started drinking hard liquor, which he found difficult to handle. At twelve years old, Everett started abusing marijuana, and he subsequently started using LSD, powder cocaine, crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, ecstasy, and pain pills. Everett also reported to Dr. Mhatre that, during his trip to Panama City at the time of the murder, he was cooking crystal methamphetamine every day, was high on drugs throughout the trip, and had not slept in several days. Everett also claimed that, in the week leading up to the murder, he used about half an ounce of methamphetamine, five ounces of marijuana, one gram of powder cocaine, one gram of crack cocaine; had done six to seven hits of LSD; and had consumed twelve beers a day. Dr. Mhatre testified that the crystal methamphetamine would have acted as a stimulant to Everett and could have caused significant paranoia. Most of the drugs that Everett was on were well known to cause paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions. Dr. Mhatre believed that Everett’s reported drug use on the day of the crimes was consistent with Everett’s history of drug use and Everett’s claim that he 42 Case: 14-11857 Date Filed: 02/27/2015 Page: 43 of 87 committed the crimes in a state of drug-induced paranoia. Specifically, Everett reported to Dr. Mhatre that, on the day of the murder, he was getting increasingly paranoid and when the victim accidentally got into [his motel] room looking for somebody, the paranoia just went off the roof, he started thinking she was a law enforcement, trying to get her, trying to track her down, ran into her unfortunately later on while she was jogging, followed her and stalked her and [was] convinced, and . . . [his] initial purpose to go [to the victim’s house] was to find out . . . if she does, in fact, belong to law enforcement. Dr. Mhatre conceded that he was not able to corroborate Everett’s claims concerning his drug use or Everett’s claim that he was in a drug-induced psychosis at the time of the murder through police officers’ reports or other witnesses. Dr. Mhatre did not conduct any psychological testing of Everett, and indeed, he was not qualified to administer such tests. Dr. Mhatre did speak to Everett’s mother and two of Everett’s sisters as part of his evaluation of Everett, and he testified as to the information obtained from these interviews. Glenda told Dr. Mhatre that she and Sidney fought a lot in front of the children, which she believed had “a big impact on all of her children, possibly especially on [Everett].” Glenda reported that Everett “was like a different person” when he was on drugs and that he was never violent except when he was on drugs, which caused him to have “a bit of a temper.” Dr. Mhatre also confirmed through the interviews that Sidney was an alcoholic, but Everett did not report any particularly positive or negative feelings about Sidney. 43 Case: 14-11857 Date Filed: 02/27/2015 Page: 44 of 87