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Killer�s state of mind: drug abuse or mentally ill Prospect man�s fate depends on debate over personality change By Dani Dodge Until his senior year in high school, Mark Curtis Fernandez was an easygoing kind of guy. He was the high school class vice president. He was the comedian of the family. But his senior year, things changed, according to his mother Pamela G. Fernandez. At night, she could hear him sobbing. He began to withdraw from the family. Eventually he stopped bathing. "He wasn�t my Mark," she said. "He had become a stranger." Mark Fernandez�s attorneys contend that this was the beginning of his mental illness � a mental illness that led him to kill his cousin, Jaime Fernandez. As Mark Fernandez�s murder trial continued Thursday, the defense used testimony from family members, co-workers, friends and a psychiatrist to paint a picture of a young man with a deepening psychosis. They said he would disappear for days at a time, believe that people were out to get him, and cut his tongue so he wouldn�t be tongue-tied. But prosecutor Judi Harper attempted to point out in every witness cross-examination that Fernandez had reported heavy drug and alcohol use from the age of 18 until shortly before the murder. She questioned whether his bizarre behaviors could have been a result of the alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine, mushrooms and LSD he consumed. Some conceded it was possible, but only his college roommate said he actually knew of the drug use. Fernandez has already confessed that he bludgeoned his cousin to death with a decorative brick in October 1999. But at stake is where Fernandez, 28 of Prospect, will go after the trial. If he�s found guilty of murder he faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison. If he�s found "guilty, but insane" he will be sent to a state hospital, where he could be released at any time by order the of state Psychiatric Security Review Board. Robert Luther, the first psychiatrist to testify in the case, concluded: "My view is, because of his illness, he should be incarcerated in a hospital." Harper asked Luther if he didn�t come to the same conclusion on a murder case several years ago, and then switch his diagnosis 14 months later. Luther said in that case the psychosis "cleared up" after the person was in the state hospital a year. The review board released the person without any requirements for supervision. Luther was the first psychiatrist to interview Fernandez after the murder. He was paid as an expert to testify for the defense. After his diagnosis, the prosecution then paid a different psychiatrist to interview Fernandez. That psychiatrist came up with the same diagnosis: schizophrenia. The prosecution had a third psychiatrist interview Fernandez and that doctor concluded that Fernandez merely suffered from social phobia � and not mental illness. Luther was the only doctor to testify Thursday. The other two will testify today. "(Mark Fernandez) had nothing to gain with his cousin�s death," Luther said. "There�s not motive that any logical view of this would come up with � he had the idea that Jaime was aware of the frightening conspiracy he had around him and wouldn�t let him know what was going on," Luther said. "It escalated and led to a tragic death." Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.