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ODESSA AMERICAN Tuesday, September 26, 19785fc.fr . . . s Jj* : X:said 'goal directed'^AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A psychiatrist his]] testified that under the circumstances of possible arrest on drug, theft ahitgun charges, David Lee Powell’s rffadhine-gunning of Patrolman Ralph Abldnedo was goal directed.lt;t\ Richard Coons of Austin said Monday', he found Powell, 27, to be legally siane, contradicting testimony by a Detroit psychiatrist who has specialized inI : J * t * fA[ psychologist, George Parker of Austin, also said he believed Powell was♦ H *v*; farker acknowledged, however, that lp Written report said Powell “probablyijefeds environmental help (such as incarceration) to provide the degree of control, that would manage his impulses (or him.”Powell could be executed with a lethal injection if the jury finds he killed Ablanedo deliberately and without provocation and that he would pose a continuing threat to society if allowed to live.Ablanedo died in a burst of fire from anAK-47 automatic rifle, the kind used by Communist troops in Vietnam, after stopping Powell’s red Mustang on May 18.Prosecutor Steve Edwards set up a “hypothetical situation” of a man with outstanding arrest warrants, several hot check charges an driving a car whose contents included $5,000 to $14,000 worth of methamphetamine — “speed” — and several illegal weapons, including the AK-47.“Would the reaction of killing the policeman indicate that person is mentally ill?” asked Edwards.“It certainly could be considered goal-directed behavior that could lend itself most readily to the interpretation of avoiding arrest,” Coons said.Asked about the diagnosis by Dr. Emmanuel Tanay of Detroit that Powell was a paranoid schizophrenic, Coons said, “I saw no evidence of psychosis. I saw no evidence of paranoid schizophrenia,”Tanay said Powell, valedictorian of hissenior class at Campbell, began showingsigns of mental illness at about age 16.Asked by defense lawyers whether Powell felt remorse for the Ablanedo death, Tanay testified:“He believed he was in a fire fight — a Vietnam-type fire fight. He describes it as a military encounter. There was a war. He was prepared for it. He had a machine gun and grenades,” Tanay said.Tanay said he asked Powell how he felt about “killing an innocent human being.”“He said, ‘Death is not tragic. Life is tragic,' ” Tanay related.Tanay also called Powell a “drug pusher” whose heavy use of methamphetamine aggravated his mental illness.He said Powell lived at the time of the slaying with two women he referred to as his “lovers.” One, Sheila Meinert, 27. also is charged with capital murder in the Ablanedo shooting.“He tried to imply in a Manson-type style that he had a whole band dependent on him. ... That he was the leader of a big movemet.... But you try to pin him down,and thprp’c nothing thorp “ Tanav said.
Newspaper Details
Odessa American
Odessa, Texas, US
Tue, Sep 26, 1978
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Jared T.
NA, NA 29 May 2023
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Odessa American
