> Friday, February 2, 2001

> ## Doctor testifies Harris was insane

> ### Defense finishes case in slayings at nursing home

> By KIM WESSEL, The Courier-Journal
> Kim Harris was in a "psychotic haze" when she shot and killed two nursing-home executives almost four years ago, a psychiatrist testified yesterday.

> "I think she was not able to understand that she was doing something that was quite wrong," Dr. Paul Adams told a jury at Harris' murder trial in Jefferson Circuit Court. "She's a very disturbed young woman suffering from a major mental disorder."

> Adams, testifying for the defense, said that, in his opinion, Harris, 27, was legally insane on April 29, 1997, when Deborah Bell and Patty Eitel were gunned down outside the Jefferson Place nursing home in eastern Jefferson County.

> "I think considering everything I know about her behavior at that time, she was insane and was not able to reason," he said.

> With Adams' testimony, Harris' attorneys finished presenting their case, and prosecutors are now calling more witnesses in rebuttal.

> The trial is expected to conclude next week.

> Then it will be up to the jurors -- who have been given conflicting psychiatric opinions -- to decide if Harris was insane at the time of the shooting. Earlier in the week, they heard another psychiatrist, Dr. Frank Deland, say that Harris was mentally ill, but not legally insane.

> To find Harris not guilty by reason of insanity, as defined under Kentucky law, the jury must find that she was so severely mentally ill that she lacked the capacity to appreciate the criminality of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law. Harris is charged with two counts of murder. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.

> While her attorneys, Bette Niemi and Patti Echsner, aren't disputing that their client killed Bell and Eitel, they're trying to show that Harris was mentally ill and legally insane at the time.

> Bell, 46, was the nursing home's executive director, and Eitel, 43, was its director of nursing.

> Harris had worked there as a nursing assistant for about 11/2 years but was asked to resign two months before Bell and Eitel were killed.

> Prosecutors contend Harris killed them out of revenge.

> Adams, who said he has taught psychiatry at a number of universities, including the University of Louisville, has met with Harris about 15 times since January 1998 -- eight months after her arrest. He said he spoke with her parents and sister, and sat in on Harris' sessions with Deland, her treating psychiatrist.

> Adams told the jury that he diagnosed Harris with schizoaffective disorder, which means she suffers from both schizophrenic symptoms and mood swings. He said she has had hallucinations, hearing noises in her head -- like a crowd of people talking -- and voices telling her that she's "no good."

> Adams described how, at different times in her life, Harris was obsessed with Catholicism, home schooling, dog training and midwifery. "These reached delusional proportions -- not just obsessions," he said.

> Adams said Harris told him that on the day of the murders, she had wanted to take Eitel to a graveyard in Nelson County, then kill herself in front of her. He said Harris was not prepared when she saw that Bell was with Eitel.

> "She got very confused," Adams said. "There was something standing in the way of killing herself."

> Adams told the jury that Harris doesn't remember shooting the women.

> When questioned by prosecutor David Lewis, Adams acknowledged that he got much of the information used to make his diagnosis from Harris or her attorneys. He said he did not talk to anyone who saw Harris the day of the shooting.

> Deland, who testified Wednesday, said that he diagnosed Harris with major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but said, in his opinion, that she was not psychotic and not legally insane.

> Adams noted that Harris is on an anti-psychotic medication, and said it's "perplexing" that she is being treated with that by a doctor who doesn't think she is psychotic.

> Deland said he gave Harris anti-psychotic medication because it also helps treat anxiety, and with Harris, he said, it "quelled her agitation."

> Copyright 2002 The Courier-Journal