Cunningham future rests with jury

The fate of Matthew Cunningham is now in the hands of a six-man, six-woman jury.

In his closing arguments, defense attorney Joel Brown stressed Cunningham’s mental illness as he explained why they should sentence him to life in prison instead of the death penalty.

“Matthew Cunningham’s mental illness impaired his ability to act rationally,” Brown said. “We’re not talking justification for the crime, we’re talking impairment. Mental illness impaired his ability to act rationally.”

Brown and fellow defense attorney Larry Blieden stressed that life in prison was the appropriate sentence.

“For what he did, he should be separated from the rest of us for the rest of his life,” Blieden told the jury during his closing arguments.

Deputy County Attorney Mark Barry said it was Cunningham’s decisions and actions, especially his heavy drug- and alcohol-use, that lead to the deaths of Robert Barker and Katharine Spain during Cunningham’s knife-wielding spree in October 2004 at the Andante apartment complex.

He argued that the jury should sentence Cunningham, 30, to death.

“You don’t reward someone who’s burned his brains out on drugs,” Barry said.

Cunningham’s drug and alcohol use started early in high school, according to witnesses in the trial that began Nov. 26.

The defense team attempted to show that it was Cunningham’s psychotic disorder that caused the drug-use as a way to quiet the voices in his head when they entered a plea of guilty and insane last year.

The defense showed it was the heavy drug-use that may have eventually resulted in Cunningham hearing voices and having delusions. Barry pointed out how Cunningham made his own decisions and hid his almost daily drug- and alcohol-use from his family.

The jury agreed with the prosecution when they found the former waiter guilty of the first-degree murders of Spain and Barker, as well as two counts of aggravated assault and one count of burglary.

Now, they have to decide if Cunningham was a clever liar, pretending to hear voices in an attempt to escape the death penalty or if he really has been plagued by mental illness since his teenaged years.

Mental health professionals who have examined Cunningham agree that today he has a psychotic disorder not otherwise specified, which means they can’t pinpoint if it is due to drug use or an underlying mental health issue.

Blieden told the jury Wednesday that the case comes down to the fear of mental illness and people with mental illness when he asked the jury not to react in a knee-jerk and sentence Cunningham to death.

Barry admitted that the jury was in a tough situation but, for him, the decision was simple, while Cunningham may have been a nice student and loving child, once he became a teen and rebelled against his father, started drinking and doing drugs, Cunningham became a different person.

“It was Matt’s decisions that got him into this mess,” Barry said.

Witnesses have testified that Cunningham attacked his roommate, Barker, with a kitchen knife and chased him out to the apartment’s pool area where, in front of a dozen witnesses, he stabbed him to death and slit his throat.

Then Cunningham chased some of the apartment residents until he ran across Spain, who had walked out of her apartment to see what the commotion was about.

The medical examiners office report shows over three dozen stab wounds as Spain attempted to fight off Cunningham who continued to stab her until she collapsed in the apartment hallway.

The jury began deliberations Thursday morning.