Psychologist questions Abrams’ insanity

Deepa Bharath

SANTA ANA -- A psychologist who testified for the prosecution

Wednesday said convicted murderer Steven Allen Abrams did not seem

“profoundly impaired” during his interviews with police minutes after he

crashed into a Costa Mesa preschool in May 1999.

Martha Roberts, a clinical and forensic psychologist, was called by

Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah Lloyd.

Lloyd has contended that Abrams’ actions on May 3, 1999 -- when he

drove his car into the preschool’s playground, killing two children and

injuring several others -- are best understood as a form of drug-induced

psychosis.

Lloyd brought in Roberts as a key witness in the murder trial’s second

phase, which will determine Abrams’ sanity.

A jury on Aug. 24 found Abrams guilty of two counts of murder and

several counts of attempted murder for intentionally driving his car into

the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center, which closed last month.

Abrams could face the death penalty if he is found to be sane, but his

attorneys have presented a weeks-long defense arguing he was mentally

incompetent at the time of the incident.

In testimony that lasted more than six hours Wednesday, Roberts

interpreted Abrams’ interviews with the police on three different

occasions: the first at the preschool minutes after the incident, the

second at the Costa Mesa Police Station three hours later, and the third

roughly 19 hours after the incident.

Abrams’ words right after he drove into the playground should be

considered the most significant piece of evidence, Roberts said.

“He appears to be spontaneous,” she said. “He can verbalize and

doesn’t appear blunted in his emotions. ... Nobody had to prompt him to

talk.”

As the hours went by, Abrams became more disorganized in his thinking

and started to look “acutely disturbed,” she continued.

“In the first tape he said ‘I’m glad I did it,’ ” she said. “In the

second, he says he doesn’t get the relief he expected to get from having

done it.”

Roberts said Abrams’ predominant emotion seemed to be anger directed

at specific people, such as a judge, a woman Abrams was accused of

stalking and her husband.

But Public Defender Denise Gragg argued that Abrams’ psychosis had

deep roots and that it had grown over the years.

She said Abrams was being haunted by “the brain wave people” whom he

believed read and manipulated his thoughts, urging him to kill people.

Abrams, she said, also believed those people protected the innocent.

So, by killing the innocent -- the children -- Abrams was in fact trying

to get even with them.

Gragg also said Abrams had mentioned these “brain wave people” to some

of his family members over the years.

Gragg will continue questioning Roberts today.