Posted on 06/22/2022 11:45:59 AM PDT by Red Badger
NEW YORK -- A jury has found that Richard Rojas is not responsible for plowing his car through a Times Square crowd in 2017, killing an 18-year-old tourist and injuring several others, due to mental illness.
Deliberations began on Tuesday.
Rojas, 31, faced numerous charges in the case, including murder.
Alyssa Elsman, 18, was killed and 22 others were hurt in the 2017 crash.
The defense said Rojas has a history of mental illness. He pleaded not guilty.
The decision means Rojas qualifies for being committed instead of being sentenced to prison.
Rojas was ordered to held while he is examined. A hearing on the matter will be held Thursday.
Rojas' attorney Enrico DeMarco called the verdict "right and humane," adding that winning over the jury was an uphill battle "because it was such a horrible act."
The trial, which began early last month, featured testimony from victims who suffered severe injuries from what prosecutors labeled "a horrific, depraved act."
On the defense side, family members testified how Rojas descended into paranoia after he was kicked out of the Navy in 2014.
That Rojas was behind the wheel of the car was never in doubt. Multiple security videos showed him emerging from the vehicle after it crashed. That put the focus of the case on his mental state.
"We are grateful to the jury for its service. Our condolences continue to be with the family, friends and loved ones of Alyssa Elsman, who suffered a terrible and tragic loss, and all of the victims of this horrific incident. I thank the prosecutors, detectives, analysts and staff members for their hard work and dedication on this long case," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Alfred Peterson conceded that Rojas was having a psychotic episode, including hearing voices, at the time of the rampage. But Peterson argued Rojas showed he wasn't entirely detached from reality by maneuvering his vehicle onto the sidewalk and driving with precision for three blocks, mowing down people until he crashed.
One victim's pelvis was separated from her spine. Doctors were certain she would die, but she somehow survived. Elsman's younger sister Eva, then 13, testified during the trial about her own injuries: broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a compound leg fracture and other wounds that kept her in the hospital for weeks.
"The defendant made a decision that day," the prosecutor, Peterson, said. "He made a choice. … He went to the 'crossroads of the world,' a high profile place where everyone knows there's lots and lots of people."
Once there, he was "in full control of his car," he added.
Defense lawyer Enrico DeMarco told jurors "there should be no doubt" his client met the legal standard for an insanity finding. The evidence, the lawyer said, showed Rojas "lacked a substantial capacity to know what he was doing was wrong" because of an underlying illness — schizophrenia, as diagnosed by a defense psychiatrist who testified.
DeMarco played a videotape in the courtroom of Rojas jumping out of his car after it slammed into a sidewalk stanchion. Rojas could be heard yelling, "What happened? … Oh my God, what happened?" as he was being subdued, and could be seen banging his head on the ground.
Rojas, the attorney said, "lost his mind."
“Driving While Brown” has a different meaning nowadays.
***due to mental illness. ***
REOPEN THE MENTAL INSTITUTIONS closed down in the 1970s!
The entire USA has become an open air mental institution.
Years ago there was an attempt to get a lawful new verdict in such cases. “Guilty but insane.”
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Richard+Rojas&iax=images&ia=images
We’ll be paying for his care now for the rest of his life.
Then have the DMV agent who issued him a license sit in the cell in his stead.
My mom got her California DL renewed at age 98. She was legal to drive until 104! DMV said she had to wear glasses.
Starting at the top with demented babblin' biden blaming the russians,
ceo's and the American people's mental health for his poor polling numbers.
“Richard Rojas, accused in deadly Times Square crash, found not responsible due to mental illness...”
“O well, if that’s the case you are free to go young man”
His “mental illness” would certainly allow him to hold others accountable if they did something rotten to HIM. Or not prevent him from obeying the traffic laws so as to avoid wrecking HIS car.
Not only that, if he’s that deranged, he wouldn’t have a
driver’s license.
You have to be able to function to drive a car, and if you
can do that, you know right from wrong.
Having to stop at the turn signals and put miles on the car,
this guy is playing the game against us. Bleeding heart
judges and soft headed psych people just have not grasp of
reality.
Soon they will turn him loose so he can strike again. The people he killed and maimed were not responsible for his action either.
Well that’s often par for the course as is said. These people end up in care facilities but as I understand it if they recover there under medications etc. they can then have to serve time?
If that were to happen, it would be the first time I remember
having seen that happen.
Reagan’s assassin is free to roam about and do as he pleases.
Reagan would have died except for one casual call on the
part of people around him. “I feel fine.” “We’re going to
the hospital!”
And yet this guy didn’t receive a single day for his crime.
Yes - unfortunately that’s also the case.
Very little justice today for the victims where the criminal is reated more favorably than the victims - but that is a lawless society in a sense, our systm simply doesn’t enforce the laws.
Thanks CAWW. I agree.
Often now a days criminals are back on the street before their victims are out of the hospital.
That’s so true - and some of them will be maimed for life! It’s been said we’re on our own and there’s a lot of truth to that I think...I know my lifestle has changed since biden and his cohorts took over!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.