Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 9, 1994 TAG: 9405090138
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Until Thursday, the courts had determined he needed to be in a mental institution. But Franklin County Circuit Court Judge B.A. Davis III ruled that Harvey Sterling Wallace could be moved to a halfway house on an outpatient basis and gradually have more freedom.
A slight man with a slow, deliberate voice, Wallace thanked Davis for granting the conditional release.
"What I experienced at that cabin, nobody knows what they would do unless they're in that situation," he said. "I let my body move. I didn't use reason."
Wallace - a 54-year-old man diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic - was acquitted by reason of insanity in September 1980. He first axed and then shot to death a 77-year-old rabbit hunter named William McKinley Preston, who approached the isolated cabin where Wallace lived behind bolted doors on Feb. 29, 1980.
At the time, Wallace testified that when he saw Preston holding a 12-gauge shotgun, he thought he was receiving mental telepathy messages that Preston had come to kill him.
So he grabbed an ax, sneaked up behind Preston and struck him. Then, he pulled the shotgun from Preston and fired it, hitting him twice in the throat.
Jay Harper, a psychologist at the Southwest Virginia Mental Health Institute in Marion, testified Thursday that Wallace has made great strides and no longer poses a significant threat to society.
"He's not a shark; he's a frightened, timid mouse," Harper testified.
Although Wallace still may believe that he has telepathic abilities, Harper said, he is not an aggressive person.
Harper said he considers the halfway house in Castlewood in Russell County a permanent placement because Wallace needs interaction with other people and long-lasting medication, which he receives monthly by injection.
"What no one would want to see again is for him to be living totally isolated; for example, out in the woods as was the case prior to his trouble," Harper said.
Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood raised concerns that Wallace, with less supervision, could slip back into isolation.
"What frightens me a little is that he would like to get away from everybody and go back to the situation he was in before," Hapgood said.
Judge Davis said he was satisfied that Wallace no longer needs continued inpatient psychiatric treatment.
After his acquittal, Wallace was confined at Central State Hospital in Petersburg, where he stayed until being transferred to a less restrictive environment at Southwest Virginia Mental Health Institute in July 1989.
In 1991, Judge Davis approved a request for Wallace to go on unescorted shopping trips about a mile away from the hospital for two hours twice a week.
by CNB