Death row inmate in Colorado woman's murder likely bipolar, psychiatrist claims
CHEYENNE, Wyo - A Colorado psychiatrist who evaluated Wyoming's lone death row inmate before his state court trial nearly 10 years ago says evidence unearthed by the inmate's new legal team indicates he suffers from mental illness.
Windsor psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Ash testified Thursday in federal court in Cheyenne.
Ash says new information about the background and family medical history of death row inmate Dale Wayne Eaton points to a mental illness called bipolar 2. People suffering from the illness have periods of depression interspersed with intense activity.
A federal judge is holding a multi-week hearing on Eaton's claims that he didn't get an adequate defense before receiving the death penalty in 2004 in state court for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, who had recently moved to Denver, Colo., from Billings, Mont. She worked as a manager at a fast food restaurant in Denver.
Her Honda CRX, with "LIL MISS" license plates, was found buried on Eaton's Wyoming farm in Moneta, Wyo., 14 years after her murder. Kimmell was on a trip home to Billings, and planned to pick up her boyfriend in Cody, Wyo., when she was abducted at a Wyoming rest stop. Her case came to be known as the "Lil Miss Murder."
Eaton was linked to her murder through DNA evidence in 2002 after he was admitted to a federal prison in Colorado on an unrelated charge. His DNA was put into a national database and that's when Wyoming investigators were alerted to the match.
Windsor psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Ash testified Thursday in federal court in Cheyenne.
Ash says new information about the background and family medical history of death row inmate Dale Wayne Eaton points to a mental illness called bipolar 2. People suffering from the illness have periods of depression interspersed with intense activity.
A federal judge is holding a multi-week hearing on Eaton's claims that he didn't get an adequate defense before receiving the death penalty in 2004 in state court for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, who had recently moved to Denver, Colo., from Billings, Mont. She worked as a manager at a fast food restaurant in Denver.
Her Honda CRX, with "LIL MISS" license plates, was found buried on Eaton's Wyoming farm in Moneta, Wyo., 14 years after her murder. Kimmell was on a trip home to Billings, and planned to pick up her boyfriend in Cody, Wyo., when she was abducted at a Wyoming rest stop. Her case came to be known as the "Lil Miss Murder."
Eaton was linked to her murder through DNA evidence in 2002 after he was admitted to a federal prison in Colorado on an unrelated charge. His DNA was put into a national database and that's when Wyoming investigators were alerted to the match.
Courtesy: ABC7 News
