ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310074
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: FLOYD
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Aug. 2 in Current
Correction
Thomas L. Helms Jr. returned to Floyd County June 15, 1992, to make a
statement to police and was arrested on charges of rape, murder and
breaking and entering. An article in Wednesday's paper incorrectly
stated he was arrested outside of Floyd County.
Thomas L. Helms Jr. used an insanity defense - attempted by less than one- half of 1 percent of people brought to trial on a capital murder charge - and won.
In Floyd County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Helms, 36, was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges that he broke into 77-year-old Harriet Shank Allen's home more than four years ago and raped and murdered her.
He will remain locked up in a state mental hospital until officials determine he no longer is a threat to society.
William Geimer, professor of law at Washington and Lee University and director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, said very few people plead insanity. He said since Virginia reinstated the death penalty in 1977 he could not recall a capital murder case where the insanity plea was used successfully.
"It's very rare to assert an insanity defense and even rarer to have it accepted," he said. But, he said Helms' case, with which he is familiar because the clearinghouse worked with Helms' attorneys, seemed to be a clear case of insanity.
Helms, who has been deaf and mute since birth, was arrested June 15, 1992, in Williamsburg, seven days after Allen's slaying while he was visiting his ex-wife and their two children. He listed Floyd County as his permanent address, and authorities said they believed he was a county native.
At first he told police, through an interpreter, that he knew nothing about Allen's death. But he later confided that a man dressed all in black forced him at gunpoint to rape Allen. He said the same man murdered Allen by slitting her throat with a knife. No evidence of an accomplice was ever found, but Helms explained that the man in black had told him to walk in his footsteps to cover up his tracks.
Commonwealth's Attorney Gino Williams said Helms' case dragged on so long because Helms' competency to stand trial was constantly in question.
"We probably would not have been able to get [Helms] to trial otherwise," Williams said.
It was not the conclusion the prosecutor or Allen's family wanted.
Nancy Demory, Allen's daughter, attended the trial with several other family members and said the family was kept informed of the case's status all along.
"The family would have preferred a [jury] trial but feel this was the best way to ensure he [Helms] would remain incarcerated," Demory said.
John Apgar, one of two defense attorneys appointed for Helms, said the chronic and serious nature of Helms' mental illness kept the case from coming to trial. Helms was heavily medicated in order to appear in court, according to co-defense attorney Jack Gregory.
"He was actively psychotic at times," Apgar said.
In fact, Helms did not appear to understand the severity of the trial Tuesday and walked into the courtroom giving his family a thumbs-up sign and a smile before taking his seat.
Williams took almost an hour to summarize the evidence against Helms. He said psychological evaluations by the state's doctors could not confirm or deny what the defense's doctor concluded: that Helms was insane when he committed the murder.
Gregory said he and Apgar chose McCay Vernon, a clinical psychologist from Westminster, Md., to evaluate Helms. Vernon specializes in evaluating deaf people charged with a crime, Gregory said.
It was Vernon who concluded, "At the time of the murder, Mr. Helms was in a paranoid schizophrenic state and did not understand the nature, character or consequences of the act."
Based on the state's evidence and several mental evaluations, Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs ordered the state to again evaluate Helms' mental condition and hold a hearing within the next 45 days to ascertain Helms' fate.
State law says it is up to the commissioner of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services to recommend whether Helms, who has spent the last four years either in the Floyd County Jail or state mental hospitals, can be released or committed to a mental hospital. If Helms is committed, the law requires he be re-evaluated each year for five years and every other year thereafter to see if he poses a threat to society.
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