A psychiatrist has concluded that Amber Torrez was insane in March 2004, when police say she savagely stabbed to death John Hand, the founder of the alternative Colorado Free University, and Masfin Gezahgn, a cab driver from Ethiopia.
Hand, 55, was stabbed 30 times in his Hilltop home on March 28, 2004, and Gezahgn was stabbed 39 times the next day near East 18th Avenue and Gilpin Street. Denver District Judge Christina Habas had asked Dr. Karen Fukutaki to perform a sanity evaluation of Torrez, 21.
On Friday, prosecutor Bonnie Benedetti reported Fukutaki’s findings to the judge. The prosecutor said that although the psychiatrist found Torrez to be insane when the men were killed, Fukutaki also concluded that when Torrez robbed Hand – just moments after she stabbed him to death – she was sane.
Benedetti said because of the severity and nature of the cases and the nature of Fukutaki’s opinion, she was requesting a second sanity evaluation of Torrez.
Habas agreed to the evaluation that will probably be performed at the state hospital. Habas said she wanted a second evaluation of Torrez because she had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity over Torrez’s objection. Torrez has consistently wanted to plead guilty in the deaths and has tried to fire her lawyers, something Habas has refused to let her do.
Habas ordered that Torrez be returned to court on Feb. 6 after the second evaluation.
Earlier this year, Dr. Mark Diamond, chief of psychiatry at the Colorado Mental Health Institute, testified that Torrez believed she was a government agent ridding the United States of traitors and “bad people.” He said she believed she was doing the right thing by killing Gezahgn and Hand and that the government would forgive her.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
