A Penacook man accused of attempting to murder his twin sister by dousing her with gasoline and lighting her on fire nearly two years ago was psychotic at the time, a state forensic examiner concluded.
As a result, Dwayne Crawford, 39, will likely enter into an agreement with Merrimack County prosecutors to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, according to a recent motion filed by public defender Aileen O’Connell. Should that happen, Crawford will be committed to the Secure Psychiatric Unit inside the state prison for men in Concord until a judge deems him eligible for release and no longer a public danger, in accordance with state statute.
Crawford recently underwent a criminal responsibility evaluation, also known as an insanity evaluation, to determine his mental state at the time of the alleged crimes in December 2016. The forensic examiner who performed the evaluation opinioned that Crawford was “actively psychotic at the time of the charged offenses and that his actions were the product of his psychosis,” O’Connell wrote. Psychosis is a mental or physical illness that can cause someone to lose touch with reality and hallucinate.
O’Connell requested the insanity evaluation after Merrimack County Superior Court Judge John Kissinger Jr. found this spring that Crawford is now mentally competent to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, arson, first-degree assault, reckless conduct and criminal mischief.
The ruling reversed a February 2017 decision from Concord District Court Judge Kristin Spath, who ordered that Crawford was mentally incompetent to stand trial in the same case. While attorneys had reached an agreement on competency at that time, they continued to say that Crawford is “potentially restorable,” leaving open the question of his status in the future.
For more than a year and a half, Crawford has received mental health treatment and counseling services at the state’s psychiatric hospital in Concord, where he was involuntarily committed after his arrest and the initial competency ruling. State Forensic Examiner Jennifer Mayer Cox, who evaluated Crawford on several occasions, testified in superior court in late April that Crawford has made noticeable improvements under the state hospital’s care and would be fit to stand trial if given certain accommodations.
However, a trial is now an unlikely path forward. If attorneys on both sides agree with the results of the criminal responsibility evaluation, Crawford will be committed without a trial.
Crawford is accused of trying to kill his sister, Tamika Crawford, in the early-morning hours of Dec. 15, 2016, by dousing her with a flammable liquid and lighting it, also catching their home at 66 Woodbine Ave., on fire. She suffered severe burns, requiring treatment at a Boston hospital.
When police arrived at the scene on Dec. 15, 2016, they found Tamika lying in a snowbank outside, with her two young sons and her brother standing nearby.
“I did it, I lit her on fire,” Crawford allegedly told Concord police Officer Brendan Ryder.
Ryder wrote in a sworn affidavit that Crawford displayed “very little affect and expressed no emotion.”
Crawford was formerly declared unfit to stand trial in a different case in 2015. He was charged in December 2014 with simple assault and resisting arrest at his apartment at the time on Pitman Street in Concord, when police said he struggled with and attempted to fight officers responding to his home.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319 or at adandrea@cmonitor.com.)