by Robert Scott
To ascertain just where Gabe stood on these issues, one psychiatrist and one psychologist were brought forward by the defense to look into Gabe’s present mental state. A psychiatrist was brought on board by the prosecution.
The first man called in was Dr. Loren Mallory. He was a psychologist with a subspecialty in neuropsychology. Mallory had a B.A. from Point Loma Nazarene University, in San Diego, with a major in psychology and a minor in computer science. He went on to Fuller Theological Seminary, in Pasadena, California, where he obtained a master’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in theology. Eventually he obtained a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.
Mallory also had a lot of hands-on experience by 2010, which included stints at Pasadena Community Counseling Clinic and the Stop Abusive Family Environments (SAFE) program. He did a lot of forensic psychology work within the court system. In 1991, he got his license to practice in the state of Oregon and had been doing so mainly at the Willamette Valley Family Center in Oregon City ever since.
In a later court hearing, Mallory explained about the difference between a forensic psychologist versus a psychiatrist. He said, “A psychiatrist is a doctor trained in much more of a medical background. They understand all of the medical diseases and medications of an issue. I’m trained in psychological testing, evaluation, diagnostics, as well as therapy. What really sets neuropsychologists apart is the depth of testing and psychometrics. In other words, the measurement of behavior.”
Even before meeting with Gabe, Mallory was given a lot of written material about the case. Mallory reviewed police records from Oregon and Virginia, Gabe’s interview in Virginia to investigators, as well as the interviews of Judy Ward, Doug Miller and Jessica Morris.
Mallory’s first face-to-face meeting with Gabe had to do with the “aid and assist” question. In other words, could Gabe aid and assist his counsel in his defense? From talking to Gabe, Mallory thought that Gabe had a “good base of knowledge about how the court system worked. He is intelligent and can reason things through.”
Where the neuropsychologist found troubling issues about Gabe concerned what Mallory began to believe was a delusional disorder. In fact, by now, Gabe was no longer saying that he killed his mother and Bob Kennelly, as he had stated in Virginia. He was saying that a shadowy assailant had. Mallory intended to find out if this was part of a delusion, amnesia or just plain lying.
Gabe told Mallory that “the investigators allege that I killed my mother and her boyfriend.” Gabe now said that he hadn’t done that at all, but rather that he was innocent and “an intruder broke into the home and killed them.” That was the reason that he, Jessica and Kalea had fled across the United States. Gabe told Mallory that he worked for the government in some kind of clandestine role. It had been some rogue government agents who had killed his mother and Bob Kennelly.
Mallory questioned him at length about whether he really had worked for the government. Eventually Gabe said he had made up stories about that. And then he told Mallory the “real” reason he supposedly had made up those stories. Gabe said, “God has been talking to me my whole life. He’s always talked to me, given me dreams and feelings. God got me through abuse and neglect as a child. By high school, I realized God was leading me. So I cover it up by saying I work for the government. No one would believe that God has blessed me and tells me what to do.”
Gabe was unclear to Mallory as to whether he actually heard God’s voice or not. He did clearly indicate that God communicated with him in spiritual ways. Gabe then went on a long and convoluted rant about the ways God communicated with him. Mallory noted that by letting Gabe just ramble on, “He became more pressured, disorganized and delusional.”
Gabe finally admitted that sometimes he did hear an outside voice, which he assumed was God’s voice talking to him. But mainly he just “knew” God’s thoughts and feelings that God shared with him. And then he explained that he didn’t actually need to hear God’s voice, “Because if He has to holler at you, you are already in trouble.”
Gabe denied having any history of mental-health issues or counseling, other than briefly seeing a counselor when his parents divorced when he was ten years old. Gabe did believe that mental-health issues and counseling were “real stuff and is irrefutable.” But then he added, “I have studied the mind and I didn’t find anything that would suggest that God was leading me toward mental-health problems. The opposite! This is science. You can prove it!”
Mallory noted that Gabe understood all of the basic points of the charges against him: what a defense attorney did, what a prosecutor did, what a judge and a jury did. He also understood about plea deals. As far as Gabe was concerned, what Mallory had difficulties with was that “Mr. Morris does appear to suffer from delusional beliefs. Those who suffer from delusional disorders believe their delusional material, even when confronted with obvious and logical alternative information.”
Mallory noted that people with delusional beliefs tended to rely on those beliefs and make irrational decisions, even in court matters. Mallory wrote that it would be difficult for Morris’s defense attorneys to reason with him. Gabe’s defense attorneys already attested that Gabe did not believe he was in any danger of being found guilty. God would not allow that to happen according to Gabe.
Gabe believed that God was still guiding him and would save him, no matter what. Gabe even told Mallory, “The jury will know what God wants them to know.” Mallory said later in a court hearing, “I was worried that he might not make good decisions to help out his attorneys. From the beginning, he denied suffering from any mental illness. He never showed any interest in looking at the evidence against him.”
Mallory wrote at the end of his report: In short, Mr. Morris is at high risk of judging and acting on his delusional belief system, rather than on accurate information. Therefore, Dr. Loren Mallory did not believe Gabe could adequately aid and assist his counsel.
The second doctor in the mix was Dr. Jerry Larsen, who was a psychiatrist. He had graduated from the University of Oregon, been to medical school and eventually had been given a fellowship in psychiatry that was only granted to sixteen candidates each year in the United States. Later he returned to the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center and became the director for emergency psychiatric care. By 2010, he saw eight individual clients per week and looked into at least two forensic cases per week. He had also written part of a previous Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) about alcohol and substance abuse.
Like Dr. Mallory, Larsen’s task was to look into the “aid and assist” issue. Dr. Larsen visited with Gabe in jail and also talked to the jail staff about him. Larsen interviewed Gabe about his family history, later life and full range of his life in general.
As Larsen interviewed him, it was apparent that Gabe understood the legal process and understood what a judge, prosecutor and defense lawyer did. And yet with so much evidence against him, Gabe told Larsen that he believed the police had not done their job and had not looked for another suspect in the case. He was convinced another man had killed his mom and Bob Kennelly. Gabe absolutely thought he was going to be able to get on the stand and convince a jury that this was so. He said he could explain why he had given a false confession in Virginia. And God would direct him, as he was now being directed by God in jail. He was sure he would be acquitted and allowed to go home.
Gabe went even further than that. He believed he was now in jail as part of God’s plan for him. He was there to help other people who were in the Coos County Jail. Gabe said he consistently got messages from God. These were not necessarily voices, but they were messages. These messages were essentially to protect him in jail. One thing Gabe was very adamant about was that he was not mentally ill. At one point, he refused to see a defense investigator because this investigator did not understand his relationship with God. And at another point, he wanted new attorneys because he believed they did not understand his special relationship with God as well.
Larsen noted later, “He was absolutely opposed to the fact that his attorneys might raise the issue of mental illness as a defense. It was odd, however, because he did it in a concise, calm manner. He didn’t lose his temper, get angry or become agitated.” Dr. Larsen had grave doubts that Gabriel Morris could aid and assist his attorneys.
The third mental-health specialist to interview Gabe was Dr. Michael Sasser. He was a psychiatrist and an undergraduate at the University of Oregon in biology. He later went to medical school at the University of Oregon, where he got a degree. Sasser eventually became director of the mental-health clinic in Medford, Oregon, and had a private practice as well. Dr. Sasser did about forty forensic evaluations a year for court cases.
Like the other two doctors, he was asked to look into the competency issue for Gabe. Sasser read the transcripts and looked at the videos of the interrogation of Gabe in Virginia. He also looked at those types of materials concerning Jessica Morris. Then he got documents on the psychological testing that Larsen and Mallory already had done.
In his first face-to-face meeting with Gabe, Dr. Sasser went through his background and asked about his religious beliefs. In this area, Sasser later said, “I thought his ideas might be zealous, but not delusional. He spoke about having a special relationship with God and about some premonitions. He denied auditory hallucinations of God’s voice actually talking to him. Once in Australia, he got a sense that he needed to go out to a certain area because God was leading him there. He went there and converted that family, but that is not inconsistent with the faith.”
Dr. Sasser also got into Gabe’s use of alcohol and marijuana. Gabe talked about dabbling with it in high school; but he admitted that just before the shootings, he was smoking four or five pipe bowls per day.
As far as aiding and assisting his attorneys, Dr. Sasser recorded that Gabe expressed a rapport with his attorneys in the case. Unlike the other two doctors who examined Gabe, Dr. Sasser determined that Gabe understood the workings of the court system and was competent to stand trial.
Whether there would actually be a jury trial, however, started to be questionable by May 2010. DA Frasier let Gabe’s attorneys know that if Gabe pleaded guilty to the charges against him, he would take the death penalty off the table. Frasier would then argue to have Gabe sentenced to life without parole, while the defense could argue for a more lenient sentence. And the defense could present a mental-health case as part of sentencing.
It was a struggle to make Gabe admit to anything that he had done, since to some degree he still believed in the shadowy figure who supposedly had killed his mom and Bob Kennelly. His lawyers worked long and hard on this issue, and Gabe had come to trust them. Bit by bit, they got him to move toward this avenue, which, at least, would spare him the death penalty.
CHAPTER 33
The issue now became whether Gabriel Morris was too mentally ill at the time of the murders to understand the illegality of what he had done. The same mental-health professionals who had seen Gabe before on the “aid and assist” issue would interview him once again.
Dr. Mallory noted that Gabe was interviewed in the Coos County Jail in a small room with thick windows, a table and three plastic chairs. Gabe was dressed in jail garb and was “cooperative and appropriate. His motor movements were normal, and he was calm. He spoke in a clear and easily understood voice, and his volume was low, but easily heard.”
Talking with Gabe about his personal history, Mallory noted that Gabe had been born in the San Diego area and lived there until the age of fifteen. Gabe got into all of the family dynamics: the rift between his mother and Danny, and his mother suddenly leaving.
Gabe told Mallory, “I had an awful and shitty childhood. I was abandoned by my mother.” Gabe got into all of the alleged abuse at the hands of his father, but he added, “I felt some pity for my dad. I could see he was in a lot of pain.”
Gabe then described moving up to Oregon to live with his mother and John Lindgren, his missionary days and going to BYU. After that, he started talking about his marriage to Jessica. Once again, he called her a “wonderful person,” but he admitted that there had been problems in the marriage. He added, “I gave up being an airplane pilot for her. There wasn’t any physical or verbal violence in the marriage, but we had our disagreements.”
And although Gabe knew that in the Mormon culture it was important to have children, he now stated, “I told her several months into the marriage I didn’t want children. I wanted to be a pilot with the air force. She became very sad, crying a lot, depressed, gaining weight—all because of wanting children. But I told her what I was about.”
Gabe talked about his work history and it was all over the map. He said he had been a cook, a clerk at different stores, art framer, waiter, mechanic, psychological technician, personal trainer, manager of a gym, insurance agent and even bartender. He did not say where this had occurred, although it may have occurred in Las Vegas when he was living there. When asked specifics about these jobs, Gabe was very unclear as to when they had happened or just exactly what his duties had been in each. When asked why he hadn’t worked for eighteen months before being arrested, he had no answer.
Even though Gabe was calm for the most part, he became more animated when subjects had religious overtones. At those times, Mallory noted that Gabe became more pressured in his speech and spoke “like a preacher.” When given structured questions, Gabe had appropriate answers. When he was allowed to go on at length, his sentences became more incoherent and illogical.
As far as being in jail, Gabe said that he was in good health, slept well, didn’t have suicidal thoughts or homicidal thoughts. Then he added one odd comment, “My life fascinates me. I’ve always been interested in reading books on history, culture, psychology and physics. I’m still able to enjoy these things.”
Mallory explained later in a court hearing the importance he put on testing. “The process tends to be oriented to specific questions at first, and then more open questions, where a person can say things beyond yes and no.”
In the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS) test, often referred to as an IQ test, Gabe scored as slightly above average. And in the Kaufman Functional Academic Skills Test (K-FAST), he scored in the 87 percentile.
It was with the Psychological Assessment Inventory (PAI) test that he started showing problems. The answers indicated a defensive-response style and a denial of psychological problems. “His pattern of responses suggests that he tends to present himself in a consistently favorable light, and as being relatively free of common shortcomings to which most individuals will admit.” He failed to recognize the areas where it was obvious he did have problems. These included suspiciousness, impact of traumatic events and distrust.
On the Positive Impression Management (PIM) test, he had a markedly high indication of paranoia. There were thought patterns of persecution as well. And this test was important in another regard. It tended to rule out malingering, where an inmate tried to fool a psychologist into believing he was mentally ill so that he couldn’t be held accountable for his alleged crime. Gabe kept insisting he was not mentally ill.
Normally, Dr. Mallory did not do a Rorschach inkblot test, but with Gabe he did. Mallory noted that Gabe seemed to suffer from bouts of depression, even though he would not admit to these: “He tends to misperceive events and to form mistaken impressions of people and what their actions signify.” Mallory said this was significant and often caused Gabe to make poor decisions in his life. And also important: “He shows less interest in other people than ordinarily would be expected.”
Mallory pointed out that individuals with perse-cutorial beliefs will often believe that someone close to them is somehow involved. These individuals were likely to incorporate someone close to them into the delusions, rather than incorporating strangers. In many instances, this was more dangerous than believing some stranger was responsible. Since they were in close contact with a family member or friend, there were more cha
nces of lashing out at them in a violent manner.
Mallory looked into the fact that Jessica had started to believe Gabe’s delusions about being poisoned. This went into the realm of folie à deux, meaning a shared paranoid disorder. An individual with this disorder becomes so connected to a delusional person’s disorders, he or she becomes delusional too. Usually, the second person in the folie à deux has low self-esteem and follows along with the stronger personality of the original delusional person. Gabe was the dominant person in this marriage, and Jessica went along with what he said—no matter how outlandish it might be.
Mallory looked at information to see if Gabe fell into the category of having an antisocial personality disorder. To fall into that category, a person needed to have conduct disorders before the age of eighteen, little or no regard for other people’s feelings, and a lack of remorse and into conning others to get what he wanted. With that, there would be a history of psychopathy, violence and, most likely, trouble with the law. There had been none of that with Gabe through most of his life. Those around him had spoken of a kind, caring individual who went out of his way to help others. Even while on the run, he gave a man, who was waiting at a cold bus stop, a ride to a hamburger place. It was an act of kindness. He was able to function on various levels, but not when it came to the predominant theme of his delusion, according to Mallory.
The leading test on psychopathy had been developed by Robert Hare and was used by Mallory. Essentially, it was a checklist on an individual to see if he fell into the category of having an antisocial disorder. By means of this test, Mallory deemed that Gabe did not suffer from antisocial psychopathy.
And from what Mallory already knew about Gabe, he began to suspect that Gabe suffered from a “delusional disorder.” The DSM-IV related: The essential feature of a delusional disorder is the presence of one or more non-bizarre delusions that persist for at least one month.
