Man, 87, charged in death of fellow senior suffers from dementia
91-year-old dies after being beaten with fists at assisted living facility
By Mike Santa Rita
msantarita@patuxent.com
Posted 8/26/09
The 87-year-old man charged with killing a fellow resident in an assisted living facility in Columbia last week suffers from dementia and last year was given a court-appointed guardian, his daughter, at the request of his children, according to court documents.
Earl Lafayette Wilder, 87, “lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate responsible decisions,” Circuit Court Judge Timothy McCrone ruled on May 15, 2008, during a hearing on Wilder’s guardianship.
Howard County police have charged Wilder in the death of James W. Brown, 91, a fellow resident of Harmony Hall an assisted living facility on Cedar Lane in Columbia.
It was the county’s first homicide since 2008, police said.
Wilder is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault, police said.
According to charging documents, Wilder approached Brown as he sat on a metal bench outside of Harmony Hall on the afternoon of Aug. 17 and began to strike Brown with his fists around the head and body. Brown attempted to fend off the attack with his walking cane.
The attack was so violent that Brown was airlifted to Laurel Regional Hospital with a severe head injury known as a “subdural hematoma,” according to charging documents.
Brown later entered hospice care where he died Aug. 22, police said. An autopsy by the state medical examiner ruled the cause of death head trauma and the manner of death homicide, police said.
After the attack, police took Wilder to Howard County General Hospital for an evaluation. He was charged Monday in the homicide, police said.
Wilder is being held at a “private non-profit facility” rather than the Howard County Detention Center, police spokeswoman Elizabeth Schroen said this week. She declined to specify the facility.
Investigators do not believe that Wilder and Brown knew each other, police said.
Legal guardian appointed
At a court hearing last May, McCrone ordered one of Wilder's children, daughter Frances Crist, of Frederick, to be his legal guardian.
McCrone based his decision on a petition by Wilder’s children stating that Wilder suffers from dementia. According to the petition, Wilder is widowed and Crist is one of five children. "Right now, I'm in total shock. That's not my dad," Frances Crist told the Baltimore Sun of the murder and assault charges.
Before moving to Harmony Hall, Wilder lived in Standardsville, Va., according to court documents.
Joseph LaVerghetta, general counsel for the Lutherville-based Mangione family, which owns Harmony Hall, said Brown had no direct descendants but had two nieces, one of whom lived in the area.
He added that the incident is “obviously distressful” to the owner.
“But the owner is satisfied that the management has everything under control and has done all that they can do in this situation,” LaVerghetta said.
A Harmony Hall resident, interviewed outside the facility Tuesday said she was friends with both of the men involved in the incident. “It’s just tragic,” she said. She declined to give her name.
Harmony Hall officials refused to allow a reporter to interview residents inside the facility.
The death is the first homicide of the year in Howard County. Last year there were four homicides in the county, police said.
Senior violence unusual
Violence among seniors is rare, experts interviewed this week said.
Sue Vaeth, administrator of the Howard County Office on Aging, said that in 2008, there were 11 reported physical or sexual abuse cases that involved seniors attacking seniors in assisted living facilities in Maryland.
In Howard County, she said, senior-on-senior violence in such facilities is rare.
“There are times when you have roommates who squabble over issues but that doesn’t rise to the level of abuse,” she said.
Prof. Tod Burke, a former Howard County police officer and professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia, said dementia could be a contributing factor in a violent outburst.
“It could trigger it and it’s also a defense, because the guy doesn’t really know what he’s doing,” he said. “This becomes a mental health issue not just a criminal issue, and for the most part the police are ill-equipped to deal with mental health issues.
“We’re not psychologists. We’re not medical doctors,” he said. “It should be dealt with by the mental health professionals not necessarily the legal system.”
This story has been updated.
Earl Lafayette Wilder, 87, “lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate responsible decisions,” Circuit Court Judge Timothy McCrone ruled on May 15, 2008, during a hearing on Wilder’s guardianship.
Howard County police have charged Wilder in the death of James W. Brown, 91, a fellow resident of Harmony Hall an assisted living facility on Cedar Lane in Columbia.
It was the county’s first homicide since 2008, police said.
Wilder is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault, police said.
According to charging documents, Wilder approached Brown as he sat on a metal bench outside of Harmony Hall on the afternoon of Aug. 17 and began to strike Brown with his fists around the head and body. Brown attempted to fend off the attack with his walking cane.
The attack was so violent that Brown was airlifted to Laurel Regional Hospital with a severe head injury known as a “subdural hematoma,” according to charging documents.
Brown later entered hospice care where he died Aug. 22, police said. An autopsy by the state medical examiner ruled the cause of death head trauma and the manner of death homicide, police said.
After the attack, police took Wilder to Howard County General Hospital for an evaluation. He was charged Monday in the homicide, police said.
Wilder is being held at a “private non-profit facility” rather than the Howard County Detention Center, police spokeswoman Elizabeth Schroen said this week. She declined to specify the facility.
Investigators do not believe that Wilder and Brown knew each other, police said.
Legal guardian appointed
At a court hearing last May, McCrone ordered one of Wilder's children, daughter Frances Crist, of Frederick, to be his legal guardian.
McCrone based his decision on a petition by Wilder’s children stating that Wilder suffers from dementia. According to the petition, Wilder is widowed and Crist is one of five children. "Right now, I'm in total shock. That's not my dad," Frances Crist told the Baltimore Sun of the murder and assault charges.
Before moving to Harmony Hall, Wilder lived in Standardsville, Va., according to court documents.
Joseph LaVerghetta, general counsel for the Lutherville-based Mangione family, which owns Harmony Hall, said Brown had no direct descendants but had two nieces, one of whom lived in the area.
He added that the incident is “obviously distressful” to the owner.
“But the owner is satisfied that the management has everything under control and has done all that they can do in this situation,” LaVerghetta said.
A Harmony Hall resident, interviewed outside the facility Tuesday said she was friends with both of the men involved in the incident. “It’s just tragic,” she said. She declined to give her name.
Harmony Hall officials refused to allow a reporter to interview residents inside the facility.
The death is the first homicide of the year in Howard County. Last year there were four homicides in the county, police said.
Senior violence unusual
Violence among seniors is rare, experts interviewed this week said.
Sue Vaeth, administrator of the Howard County Office on Aging, said that in 2008, there were 11 reported physical or sexual abuse cases that involved seniors attacking seniors in assisted living facilities in Maryland.
In Howard County, she said, senior-on-senior violence in such facilities is rare.
“There are times when you have roommates who squabble over issues but that doesn’t rise to the level of abuse,” she said.
Prof. Tod Burke, a former Howard County police officer and professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia, said dementia could be a contributing factor in a violent outburst.
“It could trigger it and it’s also a defense, because the guy doesn’t really know what he’s doing,” he said. “This becomes a mental health issue not just a criminal issue, and for the most part the police are ill-equipped to deal with mental health issues.
“We’re not psychologists. We’re not medical doctors,” he said. “It should be dealt with by the mental health professionals not necessarily the legal system.”
This story has been updated.
user comments (1)
user marianne723 says...
Were there witnesses to this incident, other than employees of the home?
Posted 6:20 PM, 08.30.09 | Permalink
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