Homeless Man Accused Of Deadly Beating May Plead Insanity

A homeless man who is accused of beating his lover to death with a brick may plead not guilty by reason of insanity, his attorney said today.

Brian Harwood, 32, allegedly bludgeoned John Baird to death in Palm Springs on March 16, 2006. Both men were homeless at the time, according to authorities.

Attorney Joe Forth said documents recently received from mental health institutions in Humboldt County indicate that his client has been suffering from mental issues throughout his life.

“Basically these show that he had some serious psychological problems all his life,” Forth said. “They indicate that he has been in and out of mental institutions and group homes.”

The new information was presented to the court just as trial was about to start in early March. Forth said it was not until final preparation for the trial that attorneys discovered that Harwood had been institutionalized while he was living in Northern California.

Harwood appeared in court today and waived his confidentiality rights to the mental health documents in order to allow for prosecutors to review them. Additional documents detailing Harwood’s juvenile court records could be released to Forth after a conference call tomorrow with officials in Humboldt County, the attorney said.

Both sides will analyze the documents to better gauge Harwood’s mental state. A trial-readiness conference was scheduled for next Monday.

Once a decision is made on the potential insanity plea, a new trial date will be set.

“We will see what the records show and how the doctors interpret them, ” Forth said.

Should Harwood enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be sent to a locked-down mental health facility instead of prison, possibly for the rest of his life, if convicted of Baird’s murder at trial, Forth said.

“He would be sent to a mental hospital … to receive the proper treatment that he needs,” the defense attorney said.

Concerns over Harwood’s mental competency have created much of the lag in the five-year-old case.

He has already been ruled mentally competent to stand trial on two separate occasions since his March 2006 arrest, with those decisions coming without knowledge of Harwood’s mental health history in Northern California.

Baird’s body was found by a clean-up crew near the intersection of Sunrise Way and Baristo Road the morning after Harwood allegedly beat him to death, according to Palm Springs police.