Tuesday, October 30, 2012
A judge in central Illinois says a Kansas man is not guilty of murdering his cousin by reason of insanity.
The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports Champaign County Circuit Judge Heidi Ladd ruled Monday that 69-year-old Gerard James fatally shot Harlan James of Champaign but was too mentally ill at the time to appreciate "the criminality of his conduct." She scheduled a Dec. 20 hearing to re-evaluate his mental condition.
The shooting occurred in a corn field near Mahomet in October 2011 when Harlan James stopped by the field to say hello to his cousins. Gerard James is a Lawrence, Kan., resident who visited Champaign County for the spring planting and fall harvest.
According to a psychiatrist's report, Gerard James had a paranoid delusion that his cousin was a serial killer.
