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State seeks psychiatric evaluation

JUNEAU -- The state is seeking a court-ordered psychiatric exam for Jason Abbott, the 18-year-old Sitka man accused of stabbing to death four people, including his grandparents.

Abbott told a friend during a jailhouse visit that he was "taking the insanity plea" and would "get off in three years," District Attorney Doug Gardner wrote in an April motion requesting the exam.

Two examinations are required under state law if "insanity" is used as a defense, Gardner said.

"There is reason to believe that the defense in the case may be mental disease or defect, or that mental disease or defect will be an issue," he wrote.

Abbott was indicted on four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with the March 25 killings.

Following a 911 call in which dispatchers heard screaming, Sitka police found Abbott on the stoop of his grandparents' home holding a knife to his own throat. Officers subdued Abbott with a stun gun.

Abbott's aunt survived the attack. All were stabbed multiple times by Abbott, according to police.

"Clearly, Jason Abbott is mentally ill," said Marcy McDannel, the teen's attorney.

McDannel said she has not determined what form of defense she'll offer. Insanity is a legal definition rather than a medical one, she said.

Insanity is seldom used as a defense because the definition is extremely narrow. McDannel said many serious mental illnesses such as paranoid schizophrenia can forgo the legal definition of insanity in Alaska.

"You basically have to be hallucinating," she said.

Abbott told investigators, "The Lord made me murder them," according to Gardner.

Days before the killings, Abbott was arrested on a charge that he assaulted his mother.

McDannel said she expects to address Gardner's motion during a hearing Thursday in Sitka Superior Court.