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By Margaret EdmonsonTimes Staff WriterIf convicted killer Jimmy Steiner had been treated properly for depression, the three Kerr County family members he was convicted of murdering may still be alive today, according to testimony from an Austin psychiatrist Tuesday.Dr. Richard Coons was one of four witnesses called to the stand Tuesday in the punishment phase of the 22-year-old Kerrville man’s trial. Court officials previously had expected Steiner to be sentenced Tuesday, but the day’s proceedings took longer than many hadanticipated.Final arguments in the trial were heard today, the fifth day of the trial in which Steiner was found guilty in the beating and stabbing deaths of S3-year-old Clayton Kenney, his 74-year-old wife, Juliana, and her daughter, Adrienne Amot, 44.The three victims were beaten with a cedar club and tire iron and stabbed with akitchen knife in their Scenic Hills Road home on March 29, 1992.Steiner could receive the death penalty or life in prison for his role in the slayings. Another Kerrville man, Sam Gallamore, was convicted for the murders in February by a Comal County jury and sentenced to die.Coons testified that Steinernow is on anti-depressant medication after four stays at the Kerrville State Hospital. On at least one of his two stays prior to the triple murder, Steiner apparently told doctors that he was having suicidal and homicidal thoughts. However, doctors only treated him for drug and alcohol abuse, Coons said.At the time of the murders, Steiner was “substantially depressed” and was self-medicating that depression with alcohol and drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines, the psychiatrist testified.“(The murders) probably wouldn’t have occurred otherwise,” Coons told the six-man, six-woman jury.During cross examination, assistant district attorney Donnie Coleman asked Coons if he considered such factors as premeditation of the crime, recruitment of an accomplice, lack of remorse, disorganized social style of life, youthful age and other characteristics that describe the circumstances of Steiner’s life in determining future dangerousness. The doctor said yes.Coleman also raised the question of what happens to the convicted murderer if he decides in the future not to take his medication.Coons’ testimony also revealed that Steiner suffers from attention deficit disorder, which was discovered when he was admitted to the state hospital in June 1993. He was arrested there on July 23, 1993.Steiner’s sister, Michelle Connor of Kerrville, explained to jurors the tragic childhood the two had shared: a mother who died of diabetes was Steiner was 4; a father who beat the two children and then later was killed in an automobile accident; and abusive grandparents who often mistreated thechildren.
Newspaper Details
Kerrville Daily Times
Kerrville, Texas, US
Wed, Dec 07, 1994
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Jared T.
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