commentary by Patrick H. Moore
There may be no task in our modern day society more demanding than foster parenting. If I go way back to my misty origins, I find myself attending a small Midwestern elementary school. One day when I was in, I believe, the sixth grade, two newcomers, Clifford and Alan, joined our class. They were fraternal twins and they were foster children. They were huge compared to us. Clifford must have weighed in at a solid 210. The report was they were living with a farm family somewhere in the township.
They seemed to be decent kids but I was always careful around them, especially on the football field. Somehow, I understood that these boys had done some hard traveling and I certainly didn’t want to aggravate them.
I bring this up because Clifford and Alan were probably, in many ways, typical foster children. I know nothing about their foster parents but suspect that when they signed on to care for these boys, they probably knew very little about them. Obviously, caring for foster kids is challenging and can be risky, not only to the foster parents but to other foster children in the case of a “bad apple” foster kid.
This is what happened to a 5-year-old foster child named Dominic Elkins who lived in Logan, an Iowa town with a population of just over 1,500.
Grant Rodgers of the Des Moines Register reports that Dominic was killed by his 17-year-old foster brother Cody Metzker-Madsen “in August 2013 while the two were playing outdoors alone at the home of their Logan-area foster family. The teen testified that he was in his “own world” at the time of Dominic’s death. He believed the boy was a goblin commander that he needed to kill.” Later evidence showed that Cody beat Dominic with a brick before drowning him.
“A goblin commander that he needed to kill.” My first response to this is that it seems unlikely that a “killer” is going to make up something this outlandish unless he believes it.
Cody faced murder charges and he went to trial claiming that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. What made his case different from many similar situations, in which the perpetrators of homicides invoke the “insanity defense”, is that in this case, his was a “bench trial” rather than a “jury trial.” What this means is that the defendant waives his right to be tried by a jury of his peers and instead agrees that the judge will serve as both “judge” and “jury”. In some countries, it’s always done this way. For example, in the Oscar Pistorius case, Judge Thokozile Masipawas also served as the jury.
Therefore, in Cody’s case, the decision as to whether to accept his claim of “not guilty by reason of insanity” fell squarely on the shoulders of his judge, Kathleen Kilnoski, who, relying heavily on forensic psychological opinion, ruled that Cody was “legally insane” when he killed Dominic.
Cody Metzker-Madsen likely faces years in psychiatric care after a judge on Friday found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in the death of the teen’s 5-year-old foster brother.
Such verdicts are rare, but it’s the second time this year a defendant in an Iowa murder case has successfully used the insanity defense.
Key was the fact that according to the psychologist, who testified on Thursday, Cody’s “lack of emotion when he described his attack on Dominic was evidence he was in a psychotic state at the time.”
In making her decision, Judge Kilnoski stated:
“During his interview with (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation) agents, and in his evaluations … and during his testimony at trial, Cody Metzker-Madsen appeared to be unaffected by the gravity of his acts against Dominic. He was animated in describing his battle against the goblin, he became testy when confronted with his lies and inconsistencies. However, it is not clear he appreciates, even now, the consequences of his action.”
Thus, unless Cody is an awfully good actor, even to this day his battle to the death with the “goblin” is real; the fact he killed Dominic is not.
Somewhat bizarrely, he sat taking notes as Kilnoski gave her ruling, which was his habit throughout the seven-day trial at the Harrison County Courthouse.
What is interesting to me about Judge Kilnoski’s decision is the fact she based her decision on logic rather than outraged emotion, which could very well have happened if Cody had appeared in front of a jury. Among other things, the judge said that she based her decision “largely upon (the)testimony and watching the teen throughout (the) trial”.
“During this trial, the court heard extensive evidence about Metzker-Madsen’s history of staring episodes, epilepsy, oppositional behaviors, attention deficits, lies, fantasy characters and possible hallucinations. This is a young man who has never been mentally normal.”
The judge also noted that “blood spatter evidence in the trial showed the teen attacked Dominic, smashing the boy’s jaw, knocking out teeth and causing multiple bruises.”
It’s important to note, that Judge Kilnoski made her decision despite the fact that Cody showed an “extreme indifference to human life.” (Several witnesses gave accounts about the teen’s inability to understand his violent acts.
I suspect some people will be outraged by the judge’s decision to follow logic rather than emotion, but what these people don’t understand (or are unwilling to accept) is the fact that a “not guilty by reason of insanity” verdict in no way means that the defendant is “getting off easy”.
On the contrary, Cory now begins a long journey through the state’s psychiatric care system for the criminally insane. He will undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville, a medium security facility, which will include an opinion on whether he is dangerous to himself or others. Obviously, at this point he probably does pose a “clear and present danger” which means he will be kept in a psychiatric facility until that is no longer the case.
In fact, there are two people still at the Coralville facility who arrived after being found not guilty by reason of insanity, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections. The Coralville facility doubles as a Classification Center and a hospital-prison for the criminally insane known as a “forensic patient hospital”.
“One person has been held there since September 2004 and the other since April 2010. They are considered patients at the facility’s forensic patient hospital; Scaletta declined to release their names.”
I am reminded of a dark story once I was once told about a man who got his testicles cut off at the Atascadero Classification Center, which was the California state prison designation center in the 1970s, and also doubled as a state hospital for the criminally insane.
My point is that these “forensic patient hospitals” are not cheery places. In the case of Cory, he could be kept in the Coralville “patient hospital” until he no longer poses a danger”. Given his acute mental condition, it could be a cold day in hell before that happens.
In the event that Cory’s condition improves to such a degree that he is no longer “a danger”, he will be allowed to leave the prison facility and will be placed under the control of the Iowa Department of Human Services.
This has been the pathway of Thomas Barlas Jr., 43, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Cerro Gordo County District Court in August after stabbing and killing his father, thinking he was Jesus and he had killed Satan. Barlas is now being held at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute, which does sound a bit cheerier than the Coralville forensic prison hospital.
Of course, I could be wrong about Cory and he could follow the expedited path of Bardas and wind up in a less frightening facility before too much time has passed. But given his apparent “out of touch” mental state and the fact he killed an innocent 5-year-old boy, I would be surprised if this happens any time soon.