Defense finds great challenge in proving Cunningham insane

Judge Sally Duncan sent the jury home Thursday morning and ordered an emergency competency evaluation after defense attorney Larry Blieden said he questioned his client’s ability to assist his defense team in his first-degree murder trial.

It was a surprise twist in the trial of 29-year-old Matthew Cunningham, charged with the first-degree murder of Robert Barker and Katharine Spain in 2004 during a knife-wielding spree through the Andante apartment complex near Chandler Boulevard and 48th Street.

Cunningham has pleaded guilty, but insane. Blieden told the jury in opening statements Nov. 26 that Cunningham is an untreated schizophrenic.

Mental health experts for the defense and the prosecution both agree that Cunningham probably does hear voices and that he is probably psychotic. But twice he has been found competent to stand trial.

The question for the court to decide, quickly, is if Cunningham is still competent to stand trial, which means he understands the charges against him, the legal system and can assist his defense team.

On Thursday Blieden told Duncan that he didn’t think Cunningham could consult with his two defense attorneys.

The jury was already scheduled to take a two-week break starting Thursday afternoon.

If he is found competent at a special 8 a.m. hearing Jan. 4, the trial will resume on Jan. 7.

Once the prosecution and defense are done presenting their evidence and witnesses, around mid-January, it will then be up to the jury to decide if Cunningham was in control of his actions when he allegedly killed the two and wounded a third at the apartment complex.

Deputy County Attorney Mark Barry has stressed that Cunningham made conscious decisions that night based upon his frustration at being fired, having no money and being fed up with his life and lashed out at others.

Over the past few days witnesses testified about Cunningham’s alcohol and drug use, starting at an early age, but testimony by his mother, co-workers and relatives didn’t clearly show that Cunningham suffered from any mental health problems, which is what his defense team was hoping for.

Instead, witnesses described Cunningham as a party guy who rebelled against the authority of his father, who spent a lot of time drinking and doing drugs and who had impractical goals, like being a movie producer without having any background in cinema.

Cunningham’s mother, Sabine Cunningham, testified that her son didn’t have any mental health issues although he did try drugs and alcohol starting in high school. As he got older, problems with drugs and alcohol got worse, with DUIs, his driver’s license being suspended and at least one five-day stint in jail, she told the jury.

But Sabine Cunningham was obviously reluctant to discuss her son’s substance abuse problems or why he went from a National Honor Society student to a C and D student in his senior year in high school.

“He told me once he tried cocaine,” Sabine Cunningham told the jury. “I didn’t want to know more about it.”

In January, when the trial reconvenes, the defense is expected to bring in an expert to discuss how Cunningham heard voices starting as a teen and that his drug use was his way to make the voices go away.

The prosecution is also expected to bring their own mental health expert to rebut the defenses, which means the jury will ultimately have to decide which expert witness they believe.

The trial is scheduled to reconvene Jan. 7 in Maricopa County Superior Court in downtown Phoenix.

Doug Murphy can be reached at (480) 898-7914 or dmurphy@aztrib.com.