The Measure of Madness

Inside the criminal mind

by Cheryl Paradis, Psy.D.

The Tiana Browne Trial Part II

A few days after Dr. Dudley completed his testimony, the Tiana Browne trial continued and Dr. Bardey was called to the stand. Ms. Browne was charged with murder in the second degree for the killing of her 16-year-old cousin, Shannon Braithwaite. Dr. Read More

The Tiana Browne Trial Part I

It has been a long, slow summer in New York City and the sweltering weather has forced many of us inside. I spent a good part of the time in the courtroom of Justice Wayne Ozzi in the Brooklyn Supreme Court watching the second trial of Tiana Browne. Ms. Browne had been arrested for the September 30, 2008, killing her 16-year-old cousin Shannon Braithwaite. Read More

Casey Anthony Is Found Not Guilty Of Killing Her Daughter

The verdict is in and the blaming begins. This afternoon Casey Anthony was found not guilty of killing her daughter Caylee. I watched her as she heard the jury foreperson read out the verdict. Perhaps I should have turned off the television at that point. I didn't and immediately began to hear the commentators angrily discuss the jury's findings. Read More

Tot Mom Casey Anthony: What Did Her Family Know?

The prosecution has rested after four weeks of testimony. Although many have described the forensic evidence presented as circumstantial; few have questioned the powerful impact of the testimony about Casey Anthony's character. Read More

Casey Anthony: Tot Mom on Trial

Casey Anthony's trial began a few days ago. She is accused of killing her two-year old daughter Caylee in 2008. Ms. Anthony, who has been referred to in the press as the "Tot Mom," is charged with first-degree murder and faces the death penalty. Read More

Jared Loughner, Tuscon Shooting Suspect, Found Not Competent To Stand Trial

His eerie smile said it all to me. When I saw Jared Loughner's expression in his arrest picture I believed he was psychotic. Loughner was charged in the January Tuscon shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. He was also charged with wounding thirteen others and killing six people. Yesterday, a Federal Judge found him not competent to stand trial. Read More

A "Womb Raider" Kills Again

I was interviewed last week by a reporter from WKCT of Bowling Green, Kentucky about an awful murder that happened in his community. On April 13th, a 21-year-old pregnant woman named Jamie Stice was killed and her unborn baby son cut out of her.

Kathy Michelle Coy was arrested for killing Ms. Stice and kidnapping her baby. Read More

Another Murder-Suicide in New York

Women are expected to be the defenders of their children. This is why it is particularly disturbing when a mother injures or kills her own infant or child. It is difficult to understand, much less have sympathy, for anyone who could commit such as act. Read More

The Tuscon Shootings: Is Jared Lee Loughner Competent to Stand Trial?

Sometimes the wheels of justice grind to a halt. Earlier this month the judge presiding over the Jared Loughner case ordered a competency to stand trial evaluation. Read More

Shawna Forde Sentenced to Death

Arizona is in the news again for a murder case with political overtones. On February 14, 2001, the jury deliberated for only a few hours before finding Shawna Forde guilty of two counts of first degree murder. She was convicted of the May 30, 2009 murders of Raul Flores and his nine-year-old daughter Brisenia, and the attempted murder of Brisenia's mother, Gina Gonzales. Read More

A Shooting Tragedy in Tucson

I turned on the news and it felt like was watching a repeating nightmare. A young man in Tucson shot in into a crowd with a 9 mm Glock. His intended victim was apparently the Democratic Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords. She was shot in the head and gravely wounded. The gunman continued shooting until he was overpowered. Six people, including one nine-year-old girl, were killed. Read More

A New Mother Is Killed, Her Baby Kidnapped

What would drive a couple to kill a new mother and steal her baby? The motives behind most offenses are easily understood but this type of brutal crime is difficult to comprehend. As a forensic psychologist I have evaluated hundreds of defendants charged with violent crimes. Few cases seem as heartless as the one that occurred on December 2nd in Planada, California. Read More

Brea Screams "Repent! Repent!" And Stabs His Mother To Death

Can you imagine how frightening it must be to feel that you are living in ‘The Matrix'? Michael Brea told a New York Daily News reporter that he believed he was like the main character in that Sci-fi movie. Keanu Reeves played Neo, a man living in a dream-like world controlled by machines. Read More

Will Hayes Be Sentenced To Death For the Petit Killings?

Only one man has been executed in the state of Connecticut since 1960. Steven J. Hayes may be the second.

On October 5, 2010, 47-year-old Hayes was convicted of the murder of a woman and her daughters. The crime occurred more than three years before, on the morning of July 23, 2007. It happened in the victims' home on a quiet suburban street in Cheshire. Read More

Is Tarloff Not Guilty By Reaon Of Insanity?

The brutal killing shocked the New York City psychotherapy community. On February, 12, 2008, David Tarloff entered the Upper East Side office suite shared by five mental health professionals. Psychologist Kathryn Faughey and psychiatrist Kent Shinbach were working that evening. Read More

Another School Shooting - a suicide

On September 28th, at about 8:15 in the morning, Colton Tooley brought an AK-47 to the University of Texas at Austin. He pulled a ski mask over his face before opening fire. It is estimated that he fired about ten shots before he entered the library and committed suicide. Read More

A Family Held Hostage For More Than 10 Years

How could seven children be kept secluded from the outside world for more than ten years? It appears that this recently occurred in Madison Township, Ohio. It was reported that forty-seven-year-old Jeffrey York held his family as hostages or prisoners in their own home. It was alleged that he mentally and physically abused his wife and seven children and raped one or two of his daughters. Read More

Did Jayne Peters kill her daughter?

Sometimes a suicide note raises more questions than provides answers. This seems true in a recent case that occurred in a Dallas suburb. On July 13th the bodies of the Coppell mayor, Jayne Peters, and her 19-year-old daughter, Corinne, were discovered in their home. Both had died of gun shot wounds. Police found an envelope taped to the front door with a key and note inside. Read More

Murder and Suicide in Staten Island

An entire family was killed last week. These headlines ran in the news: "Boy, 14 Slit Throats Before Setting Fire, Investigators Say." "His Family Slain, a Boy's Life of Rage Emerges" (The New York times, 7/23/10). Read More

The "Grim Sleeper": Another Serial Killer is Caught

The police finally solved the case of the serial killer known as the "Grim Sleeper." Detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department have been searching for him since he began killing women in 1985. Lonnie Franklin Jr, a 57-year-old, retired police mechanic, was arrested on July 7th and charged with ten counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Read More

Mel Gibson and a Leaked Tape

Like many Americans, I sat transfixed in front of the television last night listening to a tape of a phone call supposedly made by Mel Gibson. I heard a man yelling and cursing at a woman. It was disturbing to hear the man's tone and the language he used as he made racial slurs and threatened the woman. He said, ""I'll put you in a f **kin rose garden you c**t! You understand that? Read More

Van der Sloot's Confession: Is it Admissible in Court?

I was not surprised to learn that Joran Van der Sloot retracted his confession a few days after his arrest for the murder of Stephanie Flores. The transcripts include details about how and why he strangled and suffocated her in his hotel room. “There was blood everywhere,” he is reported to have said. “What am I going to do now? I had blood on my shirt. Read More

A Battered Woman Is Killed

Did she need to kill him to save herself? This is the question I ask myself whenever I evaluate a woman charged with killing an abusive husband or boyfriend. I am a forensic psychologist and often interview women who claim to have killed in self defense. Read More

Is Van der Sloot a Psychopath?

I was interviewed on NBC and Fox News about the recent arrest of Joran van der Sloot for the murder of a young woman in Lima, Peru. It is alleged that he killed Stephany Flores on May 30, 2010 in his room at the Hotel Tac in the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores. Read More

Who would help a dying man?

Why would New Yorkers walk by a dying man? Read More

Chief Suspect: The Natalee Holloway Case

I was interviewed last week on Fox News about the recent arrest of Joran van der Sloot. Does the name seem familiar? It should. He is the prime suspect in the disappearance and killing of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Van der Sloot was just arrested for the murder of Stephany Flores in Lima, Peru. It was especially shocking that Ms. Read More

Ambien, Delusions, and Violence: Is There a Link? Part 2

Last week I wrote about the recent arrest of Air Force veteran Derek Stransberry, who caused panic aboard Delta Airline Flight 273 when he told the crew he was carrying dynamite and traveling under a false passport. I also described the case of Mr. Abrams, who was charged with stabbing his wife to death. Read More