LITTLE ROCK — A 34-year-old Little Rock man accused of killing his parents and abducting his sister has been committed to the State Hospital, at least temporarily, after state doctors diagnosed him as mentally ill and unfit to stand trial.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims on Monday ordered Antonio Terrell Whitlow committed for an indefinite period so doctors can further examine and treat Whitlow’s mental illness to determine whether he can ever be restored to sanity to stand trial on capital murder and kidnapping charges.
Whitlow was evaluated by doctors at the request of his defense attorneys, Kent Krause and Cheryl Barnard, to explore a potential insanity defense. A report of the findings of psychologists Courtney Rocho and Mark Peacock was presented to the judge at a hearing Monday.
Whitlow has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, based in part on treatment he received for mental illness in 2011 and also on symptoms observed by the doctors who evaluated him in Arkansas, according to the 15-page report.
In interviews with doctors, Whitlow was paranoid,described conversations with people he appeared to have hallucinated, showed symptoms of psychosis and expressed other delusions, such as being spoken to directly by evangelists through radio and TV, the report said.
His answers to questions about court procedure, part of a test to determine whether he can assist defense attorneys, indicated his rational and factual capacities were impaired, according to the report.
“Throughout this evaluation, Mr. Whitlow remained unable to attend to the task, as his speech fluctuated from logical to illogical,” the report said. “At times he rambled and discussed delusional thought content.”
Whitlow was institutionalized for about three weeks in 2011 in Memphis for depression and psychotic symptoms that were diagnosed as schizoaffective disorder, the report said. He was prescribed antidepressants and an anti-psychotic, the report said.
In December, after a month in custody in the Pulaski County jail, Whitlow described auditory hallucinations during a psychiatric evaluation, leading to a diagnosis of psychotic disorder.
Earlier this month, he was briefly on suicide watch in connection with messages he claimed to be receiving from the television, the report said.
Whitlow was arrested in Memphis on July 28 with his sister hours after the pair’s 65-year-old parents, Bobby and Annette Whitlow, were found dead by Little Rock police in their Zion Street home.The couple were evangelists who pastored a small church, and police had gone to the home after a member of their congregation found Annette Whitlow dead in the living room.
Police found her husband’s body in the kitchen.
Both had suffered unspecified “trauma,” according to the psychiatric report, which includes a statement from police. Video surveillance of the home shows the couple’s van pull into the garage and Bobby Whitlow walk out the front door, then go back inside.
A short time later, a black Lincoln Towncar pulls into the driveway and Antonio Whitlow gets out and walks into the home, the report states.
The next thing the video shows is Antonio Whitlow leaving with his sister, Amber, who was then 12.
A shirtless Whitlow carries a TV that he places in the Lincoln, the video shows. He gets into the driver’s side with his sister in the passenger seat. The shirt Whitlow was seen wearing into the home was found in the residence “covered in blood,” according to the report.
Whitlow was extradited from Tennessee to Arkansas in November and has since been charged with third-degree escape, court records show.
About 10 hours after he was booked into the jail, Whitlow slipped off his handcuffs and fled from deputies while he was at the courthouse, according to an arrest report. It took about 15 minutes to catch him, the report said.
Whitlow was previously diagnosed with schizophrenia in September 2007 by state doctors while he was facing a felony charge of aggravated assault on a family member. But the doctors found that his mental illness was not sufficient enough to keep him from standing trial, and he pleaded guilty to the charge the following month.
At the time of his parents’ slaying, Whitlow was about two months from completing the sentence he received in the 2007 assault - five years on probation.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/26/2013