AP News, March 26th, 2007
A psychiatrist found an autistic 16-year-old competent for trial on a charge of stabbing his classmate in a school bathroom, but said the boy does not remember the killing, his lawyer said Monday.
John Odgren, of Princeton, is charged with first-degree murder in the attack on James Alenson, 15, at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in an affluent suburb of Boston.
"John essentially has amnesia with respect to the incidents that took place on Jan. 19," Odgren's lawyer, Jonathan Shapiro, told Judge Isaac Borenstein during a hearing Monday in Middlesex Superior Court.
The psychiatrist's report was not made public.
Odgren, a sophomore, has Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism, and hyperactivity disorder, and was in a special-needs program. Shapiro has said Odgren has been taking medications for many years.
The teen became agitated Monday after the judge said he would return him to a juvenile lockup at the Plymouth House of Correction rather than the state hospital where he had his court-ordered mental evaluation.
As he was being taken out of the courtroom, Odgren shouted an obscenity and said, "You send me back to Plymouth, I'm not coming back out."
Shapiro said he believes Odgren is a suicide risk if sent back to Plymouth.
Prosecutors say Odgren brought an 11-inch carving knife to school and staked out two bathrooms looking for a victim. Odgren, who did not know Alenson, slashed his throat and stabbed him through the heart and stomach, prosecutors have said.
Odgren has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
