Arsonist may get forced drug treatment

PALMER — A judge has been asked to decide whether an admitted arsonist should be given anti-psychotic medications against his will.

Robert Montecelli, 29, burned his father’s house down in February 2008. The fire left his family homeless but unharmed. When troopers tracked him down, Montecelli readily admitted to burning the house but said God told him to do it.

Since then, most of the court hearings surrounding Montecelli’s case have revolved around whether he is mentally competent to make legal decisions for himself. Superior Court Judge Eric Smith has already accepted a guilty plea from Montecelli. But since then Montecelli has been ruled incompetent and has also moved to withdraw that plea.

In July, Smith ordered Montecelli be sent to the Alaska Psychiatric Institute for treatment and on Monday, Montecelli was back to see how things had gone at the institute. Apparently they hadn’t gone well and prosecutors were asking Smith to allow API to medicate him.

Attorneys spent the bulk of Monday’s hearing questioning three psychiatrists who had evaluated Montecelli.

First up was Dwight Stallman, director of psychiatry for the state’s Department of Corrections. Stallman said at his first meeting with Montecelli, soon after his arrest, the patient was clearly delusional.

“I believed he needed to start on an anti-psychotic medication,” he said.

The next time he saw Montecelli, Stallman reported, he was improved. But that wasn’t the end of the story. In February of this year they had to start forcing medicine on him.

“He was refusing to take his anti-convulsant medication because he felt that God had cured him,” Stallman testified. “He felt that I was controlled by Satan.”

There was another episode that convinced psychiatrists to switch Montecelli’s meds — a religious fast the patient had begun and wouldn’t say when he would stop. Still, it seemed that the psychotropic medications, when they could get Montecelli to take them, did their work.

“He as much less irritable, much more willing to engage in conversation,” Stallman said. “Overall we agreed that he was substantially improved on medication.”

Smith asked Stallman about what Montecelli’s take on the arson was. Stallman answered that Montecelli believed the arson was justified and the right thing to do, but said he wouldn’t do it again.

“He never thought that burning the house was the wrong thing to do because it was based on this verse in the Bible,” Stallman replied.

Next up was Kahnaz Khari, a psychiatrist at API. She said the goal of medicating Montecelli wouldn’t necessarily be to rid him of his delusions, so much as to weaken them.

“We would be hoping that the intensity would be lowered, that he would be able to put it aside,” she said.

Smith asked her if she felt Montecelli posed a danger to anyone if he was released and un-medicated. Khari answered that he probably would, at least to his father, but also probably to his mother, since his father isn’t around and his mother can’t be expected to fully comprehend the depth of Montecelli’s psychosis.

Lois Michaud, another API psychologist, backed up that assessment.

“He does express very strong feelings about his father and has expressed an intent to kill him,” she testified.

Montecelli is due back in court today at 2 p.m. when Smith will hear from a psychiatrist defense attorney John Richard is planning to call.

“His testimony is essentially going to be that medications don’t help someone like this,” prosecutor Alison Collins said during the hearing.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.