Sniper's mother offers tearful testimony about son's mental illness
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Court TV) -- In her second turn on the witness stand, the mother of admitted highway sniper Charles McCoy dabbed away tears as she apologized to her sons' victims for a shooting spree that killed one person and terrorized motorists in Central Ohio for four months.
"I felt such utter grief for the Knisley family," said Ardith McCoy, referring to the fatal shooting of 62-year-old Gail Knisley. "These were two tragedies in one; I can't express how sorry I am."
Following the defense's opening statements Thursday morning in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Ardith McCoy was the first witness to testify in a bid to save her son's life on 24 charges stemming from 12 shootings from October 2003 to February 2004.
The defendant faces the death penalty if found guilty of aggravated murder.
After repeating statements from the prosecutor's opening about freedom of choice, defense attorney and former Franklin County prosecuting attorney Mark Collins told jurors that his client's actions were dictated by a mental illness that he did not choose and had no control over.
"Our evidence will show you he did not have the same ability to make free choices as you or I do," Collins said.
The defense has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges, claiming McCoy was not receiving proper treatment for his paranoid schizophrenia during the time of the shootings and could not distinguish between right and wrong.
As the first witness to testify in her son's defense, Ardith McCoy described for jurors how her son, once a boisterous and outgoing high school football star, began to withdraw from friends and isolate himself after graduating from Grove City High School in 1994.
A series of bizarre incidents began to follow, she testified, including occasions in which her son removed panels and mirrors from the walls and punched holes in the their home in search of hidden cameras.
Finally, Ardith McCoy testified, a doctor diagnosed McCoy with paranoid schizophrenia in 1996. He was deemed permanently disabled and began receiving SSI benefits in 1997, she testified.
Her testimony was significantly longer and evoked more emotion than in her first go-around for prosecutors earlier this week, in which she described finding several guns belonging to her son, including the 9 mm Beretta police linked to all 12 shooting incidents.
With controlled composure, as she described her failed marriage and guilt over her son's illness, she elicited the most emotion from the defendant yet in the trial.
McCoy wiped away tears when she testified to threats she made to kick him out of the house if he did not take his medication.
She described the "episodes" he experienced when he would "cheek" his medication, or pretend to take it, because it made him bloated and caused muscle spasms and diarrhea.
"We could usually tell it in his eyes. They would not be focused, or he would be confused and had trouble remembering things. You would say something to him and there'd be a pause," she said. "You could tell there were visual things going on in his eyes ... he was seeing things that we're not seeing."
On cross-examination, Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien drew attention to the fact that none of the strange behavior described by the witness was evident during the time of the shootings.
"During time frame of shootings, were any panels removed from walls, or did you observe any tampering with the panels?" O'Brien asked.
"No," she said.
The witness deflected further questioning about her son's finances, treatment and behavior during the time of the shootings to her husband, Charles McCoy Sr., who divorced her in November 2002 after expressing a desire "to start a new life" with a former girlfriend, Ardith McCoy testified.
"Chuck always dealt with that stuff. Even after we divorced, I was still used to him being the boss of the house," she said. "Charles never talked to me about hearing voices, he was more comfortable talking about that with his father, male to male,"
She insisted she never suspected her son was involved in the shootings, even after she began finding guns in the home.
"We were concerned he would use them to commit suicide," she said when asked why she and her husband took away the guns from their son.
She also testified that since her son has been in jail, where he receives daily medication at 400 times the dosage he was originally prescribed, she has noticed a positive change.
"He's able to smile now, for the first time in a long time," she said, herself smiling. "He was recently able to have a little bit of a giggle, also for the first time in years.
Defense attorney Andrew Haney elicited similar testimony about the change in McCoy's demeanor from the defendant's brother-in-law, Tye Walton, who met McCoy when he began dating his older sister, Amy, more than 10 years ago.
"When we first began visiting him, Charles would be very listless and non-responsive," Walton said. "Now, we're able to have lot more logical interaction."
Walton also told jurors of his brother-in-law's appeal for assistance in rooting out the imaginary surveillance cameras reporting his every move in the late 1990s.
"He told me a story about wearing a bandana one day, and then watching Regis and Kathie Lee the next day and seeing Regis wearing a bandana," Walton said. "The bandana sent a message to him that someone watching him."
Walton also testified that his brother-in-law was a popular young man who grew reclusive after high school.
When asked about McCoy's behavior around the time of the shootings, Walton said that even after he went to Chuck E. Cheese with McCoy and his family an hour after one of the shootings, he did not notice anything unusual.
"Did his actions appear that he was oriented in time and place and circumstance?" Haney asked.
"No," Walton said, adding that McCoy gave him his credit card and asked him to place the order. "Him not wanting to interact with people was pretty symptomatic."
The defense will continue its case Friday. The trial is being aired live on Court TV.
