Jamal Morris
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A 25-year-old Nanakuli man who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in bizarre attacks on two friends has been accused of another assault while in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center.
The state Department of the Attorney General filed a criminal complaint against Jamal Morris in June charging him with misdemeanor assault in an attack on a fellow OCCC inmate. The case was put on hold pending the outcome of Morris’ other two assault cases, for which he was acquitted last month.
In the pending case, Morris is charged with assaulting Kenneth Duckworth on May 14 at OCCC.
Three days earlier police had arrested Morris for pouring vodka on a friend at a Moiliili restaurant and then attempting to ignite the alcohol with a cigarette lighter. Morris posted bail for the vodka case after the alleged assault on Duckworth. Then, on May 16, he punched and tried to gouge out the eye of another friend after getting a ride from the friend to the same Moiliili restaurant.
A judge found Morris not guilty by reason of insanity Nov. 12 in the two Moiliili assault cases, turning him over to the state Health Department for commitment to the Hawaii State Hospital.
Earlier this month Morris’ lawyer was back in Honolulu District Court for the OCCC case and requested a jury trial. That transferred the case to state court. Morris was scheduled to enter a plea in state court Monday. His lawyer instead asked the judge to appoint an examiner to make a finding on Morris’ mental fitness.
In the Moiliili assaults, three court-appointed mental health experts said Morris was not responsible for his actions because he was suffering from a psychotic disorder at the time of the attacks.
Morris was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder in April and was prescribed antipsychotic medication. However, after being discharged from the Queen’s Medical Center’s Kekela unit for psychiatric patients, he stopped taking his medication.
He told his examiners he believed the man he tried to set on fire had cast magic spells on him and that the friend whose eye he tried to gouge out was the antichrist. Morris told the examiners he now realizes that those beliefs were delusions caused by his disorder and that the worst decision he made in his life was to stop taking his medication.
