A judge Tuesday declared a Shelton man who stabbed his sister in the throat not guilty by reason of mental disease.
Toai Nguyen, who had been charged with attempted murder, was referred to the Whiting Forensic Institute, a maximum-security psychiatric facility in Middletown.
He’ll be evaluated by professionals there who will issue a report to the court by Sept. 25. At that point Judge Richard Arnold will then decide whether to commit Nguyen to Whiting — and for how long.
Nguyen, 39, attacked his sister with a knife inside their Maple Street apartment on Oct. 5, 2010. She fought him off and ran out of the apartment but was seriously injured.
Police officers said when they arrived on scene, Nguyen’s sister was on the porch outside the apartment, with a 7‑inch wound on her throat, and stab wounds on her head and arms. Her left ring finger had almost been sliced off her hand.
The woman and the apartment were covered in blood, officers said.
Nguyen has a well-documented history of paranoid schizophrenia, a mental illness that causes Nguyen to hear voices, and believe people are trying to hurt him — particularly his family, according to Dr. Peter M. Zeman, a psychiatrist at the Institute of Living in Hartford.
In June, Zeman testified that he has evaluated Nguyen four times since 2009.
The first two evaluations were for a court case where Nguyen was accused of severely beating his father with The Club, a vehicle anti-theft device, while his father was driving him to the hospital during a psychotic episode.
Zemen said Nguyen was “actively psychotic, suffering from a severe psychiatric illness” when he attacked his sister. Furthermore, Zemen said during the attack Nguyen lacked the ability to comprehend what he was doing was wrong.
The doctor’s words were referenced in Judge Arnold’s 30-page written decision issued Tuesday in Superior Court in Milford.
State law says that when the defense puts forward an insanity defense, the prosecution must prove the person was mentally capable. In this case, the prosecutors did not oppose the insanity defense.
