Wake jury stuck on whether murder and rape defendant was insane at time of crimes

Update: “Jury verdict is in on Wake County murder and rape defendant who claimed insanity”

Kendrick Gregory’s violent crimes aren’t disputed, but jurors told a judge Tuesday afternoon they were having a hard time deciding his state of mind when he committed them.

The judge sent them back to the jury room to continue deliberations.

In the final two days of August 2015, Gregory stole a BMW and a gun and used it to shoot one man in the back in a robbery in Raleigh. Later he shot pawn shop owner Thomas Durand, a 64-year-old father of three daughters, in the head and stole his gun.

Gregory went on to rape a 15-year-old girl, steal another car and rob International Foods, firing off two shots that didn’t harm anyone.

Then he jumped on a bus to New York, where he was arrested driving a stolen car in Brooklyn on Sept. 1, 2015.

This week Gregory, now 26, sat in a Raleigh courtroom wearing a black golf shirt and khaki pants. Sometimes he looked at the jury. At other times he stared into space, swiveling his chair from side to side.

Unlike in most trials, the question isn’t whether Gregory, of Wake Forest, is guilty of murder and the other charges against him. Instead, jurors in his month-long trial must decide whether Gregory was insane when he committed them.

After deliberating for more than five hours over two days, jurors told Wake Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Thomas Lock on Tuesday they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Lock instructed them to keep going, saying they hadn’t spent an “undue” amount of time deliberating, and that the complex evidence presented to them and the dozens of witnesses whose testimony they had to consider warranted additional time.

Defense attorneys Jonathan Broun of N.C. Prisoner Legal Services and Wake County Chief Public Defender Deonte’ L. Thomas have argued that Gregory was diagnosed with severe mental illness but cut off from treatment in the months before the crime spree.

“Kendrick Gregory was psychotic before August 31, 2015. He was psychotic after August 31, 2015,” Broun said during closing arguments. “And he was psychotic when these horrible events happened.”

Prosecutors aren’t buying it.

Assistant District Attorneys Matt Lively and Casey Young contend Gregory has a history of criminal behavior and feigning mental health symptoms.

Gregory, who was “goal directed and resourceful,” targeted his victims and took steps to elude police, including fleeing to New York City with two guns and about $4,500, Lively said.

After he was arrested Sept. 1, 2015, he spoke with New York police but left out key details implicating himself and indicated he had information on other crimes and wanted a deal.

“This does not appear to be a psychotic person,” Lively said during closing arguments. “It appears to be a sociopathic person who is lying to police about the crimes he has been charged with.”

Not guilty by reason of insanity

Gregory’s charges include first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, rape, kidnapping and three counts of robbery with a firearm.

If the jury finds Gregory guilty of first-degree murder and sane at the time of the crime, he will automatically be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If Gregory is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he will be confined to Central Regional Hospital, one of three state-run psychiatric hospitals in North Carolina, where he will remain until a judge deems he no longer has a mental illness and is not a danger to the community.

Insanity is a legal term that defense attorneys have to prove when arguing their client is not guilty by reason of it.

“It depends on medical evaluations, but insanity is a concept of the law,” said John Rubin, a legal expert with the UNC School of Government.

About 1% of all felony cases in the United States involve an insanity defense, and a small percentage of those are successful, according to legal website Justia.

To be successful in North Carolina, Rubin said, the defense must prove:

▪ Gregory was suffering from a disease or defect that affected his thinking.

▪ The disease impaired his mental capacity so that he didn’t know the nature or quality of his acts, or that what he was doing was wrong.

The jury can only consider the insanity defense after concluding he is guilty of one or more of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

In North Carolina, it’s the defense’s burden to prove insanity to the juror’s “satisfaction,” which is a lower bar than reasonable doubt.

“In making this determination, you must consider all of the evidence before you which has any tendency to throw any light on the mental condition of the defendant, including lay testimony, reciting irrational or rational behavior of the defendant before, during or after the alleged offense,” Lock told the jury Monday.

Schizoaffective disorder

During testimony, experts agreed Gregory had schizoaffective disorder. They also diagnosed him with an addiction to marijuana.

Schizoaffective disorder is a chronic condition in which someone can experience hallucinations or delusions associated with schizophrenia and the swings from mania to depression associated with bipolar disorder, according to the National Institute on Mental Health.

The experts also agreed that twice leading up to the trial, Gregory was deemed incapable of proceeding because he was psychotic, a symptom of a mental illness that makes it hard for a person to recognize what is real.

Before and during the trial, Gregory has remained under the care of Central Regional Hospital to ensure he takes his medicine and remains competent during the trial, according to testimony.

Forensic psychiatrists split

On the key question of whether Gregory was insane while committing the crimes, the experts are split.

Dr. Moira Artigues, a forensic psychiatrist hired by the defense, said she can’t imagine Gregory not being psychotic during the crimes.

The crimes followed him being diagnosed with a serious mental illness and making 20 visits to hospitals and mental health facilities, where he was hospitalized for the most part in the months before the crime spree.

Gregory also was cut off from anti-psychotic drugs by a doctor more than a month before the killing and then sat in jail on charges of breaking into cars for a month without treatment. After pleading guilty to one of the charges, Gregory was let out of jail five days before the murder, rape and robberies.

“There is no reason to believe he would not be psychotic,” Artigues said.

Dr. Nicole Wolfe, a forensic psychiatrist who works at Central Regional Hospital, disagrees.

She outlined a troubled young man with a severe mental illness and a history of criminal activity who also feigned and exaggerated his symptoms.

During their interactions, Gregory made statements about the crime that included Chris Angel, a prominent magician, getting him in trouble, Wolfe said.

“I was supposed to shoot somebody, rob somebody, have sex with some girl and commit suicide,” by threatening police officers with guns, Gregory told Wolfe, she testified.

Gregory also has indicated that King Tut spoke to him, that he saw guards disappear into the wall, that he knows Bill Gates and that he has the ability to transfer into a hell spawn, according to testimony.

Wolfe said she is skeptical of Gregory’s report of symptoms.

A test given three years after the killing concluded that Gregory was feigning psychiatric symptoms after reporting auditory, visual and olfactory experiences, which is unusual, Wolfe and another expert said. Wolfe and other experts said it is possible to have a mental illness and feign symptoms.

In addition, Wolfe said, Wake County and New York officers and jail officials didn’t notice any psychotic symptoms before or immediately after the crimes, she said.

“My opinion is that Mr. Gregory’s mental illness did not prevent him from understanding the nature and quality or wrongfulness of his actions,” Wolfe testified.

20 mental health contacts

Gregory’s first known visit to a mental health institution was to Holly Hill Hospital in Raleigh, where he was hospitalized for six days in December 2014 and diagnosed with schizophrenia.

It was the first of more than 20 contacts with mental health professionals before the murder, rape and shootings on Aug., 31, 2015, Artigues testified.

Artigues testified that the hospital contact showed he was suffering from a severe disorder. Wolfe’s testimony indicated he was feigning suicidal and other symptoms in order to get a bed and a meal.

Following the first visit, Gregory cycled in and out of Holly Hills, along with WakeMed, UNC Wakebrook and Duke Raleigh Hospital.

At least once he told a health official that some of his symptoms were only present when he smokes marijuana, Wolfe said.

Most of the agencies don’t communicate with each other so they likely didn’t know he was going place to place sometimes within hours, Wolfe said.

During those visits, Gregory was diagnosed with schizophrenia, personality disorder, chronic marijuana use, and schizoaffective disorder.

“I have never seen somebody with this number of admissions with the ability to alter his reporting depending on the hospital he is going to,” Wolfe said. “This is very planned. This isn’t some disorganized, confused person. The symptoms are pretty consistent when you break them down and are also when it’s late at night and he appears to frequently want a bed.”

Medications stopped

On July 8, 2015, Gregory visited Duke Raleigh, his last visit to a mental health facility before the crimes. His anti-psychotic medicine was stopped by a psychiatrist there who attributed Gregory’s hallucinations to marijuana use.

Gregory was arrested Aug. 2, 2015, on charges of breaking into cars and larceny.

Wake jail officials didn’t detect mental illness or refer him to treatment despite Gregory reporting he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to testimony.

Gregory was released Aug. 26, 2015, after a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to breaking and entering a motor vehicle, a felony.

He was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation and credit for the days he spent in jail.

After not receiving medication for more than a month, Gregory was psychotic when he left jail, Broun argued.

Defense attorneys said testimony indicating Gregory uncontrollably stuck out his tongue before the crime spree, that he purchased loud and bright clothing to wear during the killing, and his big wide eyes captured in mug shots and surveillance videos help prove he was psychotic.

“When you look at what happened on that terrible day, you will realize there are signs all throughout it that indicate what was at play on that day was both psychosis and mania,” Broun said, and that he was unable to distinguish right from wrong.

Jurors deliberated for about two hours Monday afternoon. They are scheduled to resume deliberations at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Wake jury stuck on whether murder and rape defendant was insane at time of crimes."