Former CMC inmate accused of assaulting therapist: ‘It wasn’t just a forcible kiss’
Closing statements wrapped up Tuesday in San Luis Obispo Superior Court in the trial of a former California Men’s Colony inmate accused of assaulting a recreational therapist at the state prison.
Brandon McKinney, 29, is accused of assaulting the therapist, identified as Jane Doe during the trial, with intention to rape her while serving time at CMC on April 19, 2019.
McKinney, who was discharged from parole April 8, faces additional felony charges of battery by prisoner and obstructing or resisting an executive officer.
McKinney pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and alleges that he was going through a psychotic episode when the incident occurred. He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in 2018, according to the defense.
McKinney previously had been convicted twice of assault with a deadly weapon — once in 2010 and once in 2017, court documents said.
If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life because of the two prior strikes, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen is presiding over the trial, and a jury will decide the verdict.
Prosecution: Attack on therapist ‘wasn’t just a forcible kiss’
Court proceedings kicked off July 14, with witnesses providing testimony for four days. The prosecution and defense presented their closing statements Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.
People who testified during the trial included Jane Doe, officers who responded to the incident and psychiatrists familiar with McKinney’s mental health condition.
San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Melissa Chabra said in her closing statement that McKinney showed “goal-directed action” when he allegedly attacked Doe.
On the morning of April 19, Chabra said, McKinney ran to a TV room in the prison after the gate was unlocked, and “immediately began kissing and pressing his body against Jane Doe.”
“Jane Doe said she was afraid” and was screaming, Chabra said.
According to the prosecutor, McKinney forced Doe to the ground and lay on top of her “until he was literally pulled off her body” by an officer who arrived at the scene.
“It wasn’t just a forcible kiss,” Chabra said, adding that McKinney resisted officers’ attempts to restrain him.
Two of the officers who restrained McKinney said they heard McKinney say after the incident that he “just wanted to have sex with (Doe),” according to Chabra.
Chabra said that there had been suggestions that McKinney was exaggerating his symptoms.
She told the jurors to make their own decisions based on all they’d heard from experts and those present at the scene.
“Psychology and psychiatry are an art, not a science,” Chabra said.
She also told the jury that “it’s very important to look at the actions and words that happen during the crime.”
Defense: Inmate was in middle of psychotic episode
McKinney’s attorney, public defender Madeline Nantze, began her closing statement by telling the jury that “we have to consider words and actions in their context.”
Nantze said that McKinney was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder while he was an inmate at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, prior to his transfer to CMC.
“You don’t get better from that disease without medication,” Nantze said.
According to Nantze, Dr. Patricia Khoo, who worked at CMC as a psychiatrist while McKinney was an inmate, prescribed him with anti-psychotic medication in 2018.
The defense attorney added that McKinney was later sent to a mental health facility for suicidal ideation.
After observing him, a team at the facility decided that McKinney was malingering, or exaggerating his illness, so they took him off his antipsychotic medication, Nantze said.
In February 2019, McKinney returned to CMC, where he reported to doctors that he began to have more paranoid thoughts and began hearing voices again, Nantze said.
According to Nantze, Khoo said on April 4, 2019, that the mental health facility “decided wrongly” when they removed McKinney’s medication and that Khoo believed McKinney “had relapsed.”
The doctor put McKinney back in his medication nine days before the incident occurred, Nantze said.
According to Nantze, a doctor stated that the effects of medication would begin to possibly present themselves after six weeks.
When the incident with Jane Doe happened, Nantze said, McKinney was “in the middle of the throes of a psychotic episode.”
The defense attorney said that the corrections system “had the ability to stop this unfortunate incident from happening.”
After closing statements concluded Tuesday, the jury began to deliberate on the verdict.
This story was originally published July 19, 2022 at 3:34 PM.
