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A judge has ruled that the man accused of fatally shooting two Hoonah police officers in 2010 is legally competent to stand trial, clearing the way for a jury trial to begin Monday.
Sitka Superior Court Judge David George made the ruling Friday after hearing more testimony from two psychologists who re-evaluated John N. Marvin Jr. on Wednesday at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage.
One of the doctors, Dr. David Joseph Sperbeck, who has now evaluated Marvin three times, testified Marvin is able, but just unwilling to stand trial, or even to discuss the case with his attorney, despite the fact that that’s in his best interest.
Describing Marvin as an “eccentric hermit” with a probable delusional disorder, Sperbeck speculated Marvin is not discussing the case with public defender Eric Hedland for several possible reasons.
“He is not refusing to talk because he’s paranoid,” Sperbeck said in court by phone. “He’s refusing to talk, at least in my mind, and again I’ll qualify that by saying I’m speculating, but my belief is that he doesn’t have a rational explanation. And he’s basically in total denial. ... And it’s also a form of controlling the system by refusing to cooperate. It’s his way of controlling the proceedings. A person who has no control left in his life, this is the last thing he has control over.”
Sperbeck added, “He is a desperate, eccentric person in a situation that he’s sort of sliding down a tunnel from which there’s really not going to be much of an escape, and I think the closer we get to his trial the more likely he is to become increasingly hostile, or outspoken because it will start donning on him what’s really happening is sort of denial and defensiveness is just not working.”
The second psychologist who re-evaluated Marvin, Dr. Lois Michaud, said — unlike Sperbeck — she doesn’t believe Marvin has a mental disorder, but agreed with Sperbeck that Marvin was able to stand trial.
The judge had previously deemed Marvin legally incompetent in January, but then reversed his decision in June based on the testimony and recommendations of the mental health professionals.
In an 11th-hour effort, Hedland requested last week that his client be re-assessed, citing lack of communication.
The judge said in order for a defendant to be found legally incompetent, statutes require the defendant to suffer from a mental disease or defect that prevents him or her from understanding the legal proceedings or from assisting his or her own defense.
After listening to the testimony, George said it’s clear to him based on the fact that Marvin is not communicating with his attorney is a choice that he has made, probably out of “practicing avoidance” and not due to a mental disorder or defect.
Jury selection is slated to begin Monday and last through Tuesday. Opening remarks in the case are slated to take place Wednesday.
Marvin is facing two counts of first-degree murder charges for allegedly gunning down Sgt. Anthony Wallace and Officer Matthew Tokuoka in front of Marvin’s residence on Aug. 28, 2010. If convicted, he could serve life in prison.
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (35)
Add commentPrison, a great place for Marvin but death would be best
This loser is alleged to have murdered 2 Police officers in the first degree.
What he really has done is destroy the lives of families and community members. Life in prison is too good for him.
Why don't we go for the federal crime where a death sentence could be the punishment upon a guilty verdict.
Slaying of 2 Great Officers
I cannot believe that in this Society we have let this Person go on with Breath. I was working in Juneau the summer these 2 Great Men were slain. Some of my Co-workers & Myself went to the Funeral on Riverside Dr & the Sat @ Brotherhood Bridge and then on to the Ferry Terminal (Auk Bay) I have to say I haven't Cried like that Since I lost My Father. My Hearts & Prayers to the Family & Friends of these Great Officers. Hoonah is a Quiet Peaceful place & doesn't need this Person. He fully knows what he did & I believe it was "Caculated". Hopefully Justice will Prevail !!!!!!
Nope, it won't fly!
@AKjustice. The death penalty is an easy way out of a life of misery. Living day in and day out with your sins for eternity behind bars with all the philth and crud the penal system can muster. Peace!
This poor excuse of a human being,
is why Alaska should reinstate the death penalty. We have spent enough tax dollars clothing, feeding, providing shelter, medical care and mental evaluations on this creep. Enough is enough. Just think of how much money could have been provided to families in need with the money spent on this waste of human flesh. Years ago, this "man" committed horrible crimes against a little girl, and that poor girl lives with what happened to her every single day. He's disgusting, twisted, evil and should be put to death, but at least lock him up in solitary confinement for the rest of his pathetic life, devoid of all human contact.
Quote
"Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty."
-Henry Ford-
Taxes and the waste!
It's been said that approx 75% plus of the people in prison are there for drug related reasons. If it's taxes we need to save, maybe it's also time to re-think our drug laws and how archaic some of them are. Marijuana as a huge partner for the penal system's $$$ intake. Gimme a break! Back in the late 20s and early 30s when it went illegal, it was with a total nod to the $$$ value placed on a non-violent and actually medically accepted drug, as mass income for the gov. Now this guy comes along and gets free legal and medical, from a system on the verge of bankruptcy due to takin it in the shorts, because of some questionable laws already on the books. Let the pot smokers out and make room for these cruds on a very large scale.....Please!!!
For those of you advocating
For those of you advocating the death penalty as means of saving money are all wet. Putting a person to death is a very expensive proposition. It is much cheaper to keep a person locked up for life than to put a person to death.
If you think this guy deserves to die, just say so. Then, contact your legislator with your concerns about Alaska not having capital punishment.
Death penalty
I think that the death penalty needs to be used very infrequently, but in this case, it seems to be wholly appropriate. There are some people who choose to live beyond decency and are a menace to the rest of us.
JE Fume: The cost comes from
JE Fume: The cost comes from all of the appeals he'll be able to file, not from actually taking his miserable life. The lawyers get rich from appeals and the criminal gets to stay alive longer. I'm willing to donate my time, my gun and my bullet to end his sorry life. Let's not forget about the families of the victims, where is the justice for them?
ForReal, Go for it! Then
ForReal,
Go for it! Then you'll be up on charges. Whether the money goes for lawyers or to the Easter Bunny it makes no difference. It's still money that comes out of taxpayers' pockets.
If you don't like the way things are, you would be better off focusing your energies into another channel than just being another blowhard on this forum.
Prison or death hmmmmm.....
This is hilarious, do you know how you all get your self righteous thoughts and feelings?. This is only one of millions in America. We all live in a very violent society, conditioned from infancy; from our own society. We all should just blame each others for being so idiotically ignorant by how we are conditioned from society. Being violent an disgusting is our way of life, we've thrive on it every since we learned how to watch TV and continue to be conditioned from the media. This is the TRUE TOOL OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!!".
Whoooa there JE Fume, for some reason
I thought that these types of forums were for readers to post their thoughts and opinions, but that must only be if all of the readers agree with your thoughts and your opinions. I haven't done anything to deserve your wrath have I? I mean, I just stated what I thought, but maybe you condone child rapists (which he is) and murderers (which he is) and feel sorry for them. I have a strong hatred for people that harm innocent people, so you may think I am a blowhard, but you still haven't answered my question regarding justice for his victims. Those are the people that deserve your empathy, not scumbag like Marvin.
Capital Punishment
If anyone deserves a death penalty in AK, its John Marvin Jr.
Just my opinion, take what you will from it.
Matthew Dean
Hi, I am just reading all of the comments and opinions. Its comforting knowing that people from the outside have such passionate thoughts about such a case. I have read about many cases of people who are on trial and most people argue the same thing about death penalty vs. Prison for life. and then occasionally you have the one person who basically just hates all society and believes there is no true blame unless we blame everyone... but let me tell you its very different when its happening to you. Matthew was my uncle.. and when they lived in washington we were all very close. Even when they moved to Hoonah he would call frequently and check in on us all. When i heard of the news i could barely believe it. I thought he was in a hunting accident when my grandmother said he had been shot because he was such a gentle soul, thats the only thing that made sense. But no i was wrong someone out right murdered him. In front of his family, my little cousins. He made it to the hospital but knew he was dying and accepted that. He wasnt even on duty, Tony being shot first triggered matthews marine instincts and he still stayed to help his partner, No one gets left behind, any other person probably would have dashed away with his family and called for help, and sometimes selfishly i wish he would have. So knowing all this i felt all this anger that alot of you are expressing and hoped he burned in hell. I didnt understand why this happened to us. My views changed after talking to Haley, Matthews wife. She of course was heart broken. But she showed very little anger, in fact she prayed everyday for his murderer and his family. which made me realize, Wow, shes right, clearly this man didnt have the pleasure of experiencing such a love like our family has for all of our members. How could he have if he doesnt even put value on another human beings life. Dont get me wrong i am all about justice and i personally would love to see him suffer as our family does every single day, but through all this i have tried to be better as far as thinking such hateful things because i believe that is how people committ such crimes with that amount of hate. I hope that whoever is working upstairs has mercy on his soul and that all spectators take a step back and see how they can become better human beings in a society instead of wishing such hateful things. anyway im sure people will have alot of negative comments but i just wanted to open another view of some of the people who are actually inside the situation.
U537 - you have compassion!
I appreciate your comments and wish you and your family peace.
@u537
Our prayers and thought to you and your families. your uncles' actions and life are those of exceptional people. He is a true hero and will be for ever remembered that way.
Thank you for you thoughts. It took real courage to share them. I suspect you too may be cut from the same stone as your uncle.
Death Penalty
The death penalty was abolished before statehood in 1957 and currently only those people who kill federal employees are subject to the death in Alaska.
I don't believe a change in law would make it possible to retroactively apply the death penalty even if there was a change in law so saying we should execute Mr. Marvin is a mute point. There have been 8 people executed under terretorial law. They are listed below and minorities are well overrepresented.
Fred Hardy-White
Homer Bird-White
Mailo Segura-Race unknown
"John Doe" Hamilton-Native
Constantine Beaver-Native
Nelson Charles-Native
Austin Nelson-Black
Eugene LaMoore-Black
I went to a speaker in high school, a long time ago, who had 3 brothers gunned down in 3 separate incidents and he was against the death penalty. If he was against it how can others be for it?
@ AKNUT
So are we to assume from your post that Non whites are more prone to being Criminals in need of the death penalty or; That non minorities are more law abiding or; That by not having a death penalty that less minorities would commit less crime?
I guess I am just unclear where you are going with your comment and question.
For what it's worth, I
For what it's worth, I wouldn't shed a single tear if this guy were to get offed. However, there is no way he is going to get the death penalty.
@U573
I'm sorry doesn't cut it, and it never will. From one Military Family AND Law Enforcement family to another, we love you and support you. Peace, Love, and Prayers....
Akjustice
You conveniently skipped over the most likely explanation: That non-whites were more likely to be executed...because they're non-white.
Prior to 1957 racism was pretty rampant.
So ask yourself - why did you omit the above possibility?
That being said, I wouldn't shed a tear for Marvin if he fried either, but he's not worth reinstating the death penalty.
@Lat
It's 2012 and unless I've missed something the same ratios of whites and non-whites are in prison and on death row. And unless I am mistaken, the people of color far out number those of no color. Are we still practicing 1957 racism?
Now be careful how you thread this one. I am in a mixed race relationship and we have children. In our home we are very quick to make fun of and chastise those using race as an excuse or reason in today's world. We see those same people as dividers and believe they are either idiots or divisive.
Now that I've set the rules, I know your literary intellect will tell me I've missed the mark or that I am to narrow in focus to understand. But I DO understand. As I stated before, when you can choose your race and when you can choose your parents then we can talk about racism. Until then there are only the enlightened and the dim.
Come to the bright enlightened side Lat, and you too can see the dim darkness for what it really is...
AKjust
I think you skipped a half-century forward in the discussion.
AKNUT posted a list of names and races of people executed in Alaska prior to 1957. You suggested several theories, which I took to be about those pre-1957 statistics. I simply provided another theory that I think has merit. Again, prior to 1957, going all the way back to the Alaska Purchase. Are you suggesting racism would have played no role in the 1920's?
Now today? Racial bias might have some role in the prison population, but I expect there are other stronger factors at play such as poverty, cultural influences, and especially alcohol abuse (by the felon and the felon's parents).
I tire at race injection
Lat58,
I tire at the injection of race. I see it used to create a smoke screen, so to speak. It gets brought into discussions where it has not no bearing on the subject by pinheads in my opinion. They attempt to divide people into categories in order to practice some type of control on certain groups. That is dishonest at best and divisive at worst.
More to the point, Marvin is a killer and a child molester. He has destroyed the lives of too many people over the years. After jury selection, the trial and sentencing, I hope he gets 250 years and a dark cell.
If the trial reveals he committed this crime because he does not like white people then I say new charges using hate crime laws are in order too. So far I have not seen anywhere in the news reports where race has had anything to do with his crimes. What I have gleaned is that this scumbag can not or will not follow our laws and for that he does not deserve to live among us and must be locked away for the rest of his natural life!
We are in total agreement
I agree with everything you just stated.
I didn't see AKNUT's list as an overt attempt to inject race into the debate. It looked like a cut n' paste from some historical document, which included the race of the executed felon. AKNUT made no further commentary regarding race.
You were the one who jumped on the race thing, making it an issue where it hadn't been one before. Go back and read your comments. If AKNUT's list had included ages instead of race, would you have been asking the same questions, but about age groups instead?
Lat58 read this
"They are listed below and minorities are well overrepresented."
Was he or was he not referring to people of color?
And I am not sure about this but I am willing to guess that in 1957 there were more "Minorities" in Alaska alright and I am going to guess they were white as the native population was likely much greater then in comparison to today's populations.
Sorry AKjust
I missed that statement. You are correct. I apologize. Thanks.
However... the 1960 U.S. census of Alaska listed the population as 77.2% White, 3% Black, and 18.8% American Indian and Alaska Native. Bad guess.
As to punishment!
So we got this guy in stir and we're tryin to decide if he's a good death row candidate. O big time yeah! But, let's take a look at the deterent factor. If ol' Marvin would've had the intelligence to think of the consequences before he killed, maybe we would've never heard of this crud. But, the reality is, that all of us never review the negatives in the heat of passion. The death row fear is a fallacy. I can think of not one person ever, who has been interviewed or wrote of his deeds, that spoke of how afraid he was of the death penalty when he committed his crime. The whole idea of the death penalty is more political coersion than anything else. The facts are that even when a state has the death penalty, nobody gets offed for a couple decades. So no, don't reinstate it and waste our taxes. The only people who really get excited about it are the politicos and those of us that need a good argument subject, from time to time. I mean really....Look at this out of control posting. Has to be most ever commented article in JE's history. Sadly, all this good energy and intelligent effort seems such a waste for this slob of a human being. Peace!
Lat58
apology accepted.
On the guessing, I would have never guessed the numbers are as they are. Thank you for the information.
Do you know him?
What happened to those officers is wrong, wrong, wrong, but
I don't know the man who did this, do you?
As Matthew Dean points out, "...clearly this man didn't have the pleasure of experiencing such a love like our family has for all of our members. How could he have if he doesn't even put value on another human beings life?"
I have come far enough along in life to know that there isn't anything that anyone can do in this world that I am not also capable of. Knowing that makes me much less likely to rush to the scene of the stoning.
I pray with Haley and Matthew Dean that God will have mercy on this man's soul, indeed.
It is heartbreaking that they have suffered this loss.
However, those officers who fell were clean, and can face their maker in peace, and their families can look to see them on the other side.
This man, has committed a heinous crime,he will pay and
I hope with Haley and Matthew, not for eternity.