By CHRISTOPHER LENOIS

LAPLACE – Private funeral services were held for Melissa Roy, 32, and her three children – Asher, 9, Christopher, 2, and Alyssa, 10 months – over the weekend in Tylertown, Miss.

The four Garyville residents were victims of a violent murder spree, which David Roy, husband and father, allegedly confessed to St. John the Baptist Parish sheriff’s deputies a week ago.

In conjunction with the high-profile case, the wheels of justice were in motion Saturday at the Sherman Oaks Correctional Facility in LaPlace. Roy began the interview process to determine his sanity by meeting with Dr. Rafael Salcedo from the court-appointed sanity commission as well as Dr. Richard Richoux, the private psychiatrist retained by his defense attorney, Joseph Raspanti.

“I asked that they go quickly,” said Raspanti of the deliberation over which side would go first after District Judge J. Sterling Snowdy left the decision in the hands of the prosecution team, assistant district attorneys Charles Lorio and George Ann Graugnard.

Raspanti was formerly a prosecutor in Orleans Parish, who now has a private practice in Metairie. He was hired by David Roy’s family and has been their spokesperson since the grisly incident was made public.

With the Grand Jury proceedings scheduled for May 8, both sides will be using the psychiatric evaluations to determine if an insanity plea is warranted in Roy’s case. Such a plea has not historically been successful with juries in this state without establishing a long history of mental disorder in the suspect.

“Louisiana does not have an ‘irresistible impulse defense,’ where the suspect could not conform their conduct to the legal requirements even if they know it’s wrong,” said Dr. John Thompson, the director of the State Forensics Hospital and founder of Tulane University’s forensics psychiatry training program. “You have to infer that they don’t meet the qualification for full insanity.”

Thompson estimates he has performed psychiatric evaluations in conjunction with 50-75 criminal trials. He was complimentary of both Salcedo’s and Richoux’s capabilities to do the rigorous analysis necessary to present an informed psychological profile of Roy.

“(Multiple homicide’s) are such a rare phenomenon. You can’t lump people into categories,” said Thompson. Though the suspect’s behavior must be consistent with symptoms of existing mental disorders, he added.

A psychiatric evaluation must first determine if the suspect is competent to stand trial. The 1977 case of The State of Louisiana versus Bennett outlines this determination by asking two questions: does (the suspect) understand the court system? And can they relate to their attorney? Thompson said the suspect must understand the interview is non-confidential evaluation before they can proceed.

“You want to ask them how they were doing prior to the incident. What they were thinking, feeling, doing a week before, a month before. Then you want to find out about the day before, the day of, and the day after,” said Thompson.

Interviews might run as short as a couple of hours or last hundreds of hours, depending on the circumstances. Then those results are processed along with findings from the autopsies, police report and previous hospital records into their report.

“It takes a thorough evaluation of the individual case to determine if they were able to appreciate the wrongfulness of their acts,” said Thompson, citing examples such as failure to take steps to cover up a crime, or exhibiting a lack of organized thought. But some people with paranoid schizophrenic disorders are capable of demonstrating organized, methodical behavior, he said.

Though interviews with family members and concerned parties will reveal external stressors that contribute to the crime, Thompson feels that proving mental disorder requires a biological component as well.

“Mental disorders are not cause and effect,” said Thompson by way of contrasting a mental disorder with a personality disorder. “You want to make sure that this isn’t just an angry person acting things out. Eighty percent of the people in correctional facilities demonstrate antisocial behavior. They’re only focused on how their crimes affect themselves.”

Mental disorders take the shape of extreme episodes, said Thompson, such as people hearing voices telling them to commit the crimes. But delusional behavior can also constitute insanity.

“Someone might think, ‘If I don’t kill my family, they’ll all go to hell,'” said Thompson. “They feel morally justified, even though it’s illegal.”

Ultimately the evaluation of the actions is left in the hands of a judge or jury during the trial. Thompson said national averages show a jury trial will agree with an insanity defense only about 10 percent of the time. A judge is more likely to uphold an insanity defense, about 20-40 percent of the time.

“People want justifiable retribution,” said Thompson. “I listened to the call-in radio shows when the Yates verdict came out. It amazed me how many people were uncaring, thinking someone could do that to their family and not have a mental disorder.”

A Texas jury found Andrea Yates guilty of drowning her five children last month, rejecting her attorney’s insanity plea even though a history of schizophrenia, depression and other mental conditions was not disputed by the prosecution. The jury instead believed audio and videotapes presented by the prosecution where Yates acknowledged the wrongness of her actions during her confession.

Though Raspanti has made ambiguous comments to the press about his clients history of mental illness, nothing has yet been made known to the public. In Roy’s confession to the police, he cited financial crisis and marital strife as factors in his decision to take the lives of his wife and children. Both of which could be stressors for a mental disorder, according to Thompson.

“Financial stressors are very high risk factor, particularly if they’re the sole breadwinners,” Thompson said.

According to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records, Roy filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in March which prevented creditors from seizing the family home on April 10.

Such may be a factor with Jeffrey Wein in Lake County, Ind. In December 2001, Wein killed his wife, Kristin Lynn, and 20-week-old daughter, Emma Marie, with a 12-gauge shotgun. He then drove to the home of his parents, John and Marie, murdered them, and turned the gun upon himself.

Though there is little to investigate by way of a criminal activity, Lake County police investigators have requested a psychological profile of Wein from the FBI to answer the questions of the quiet, suburban community.

“They had big time financial problems,” said Deputy Commander Patrick Tracey of the Lake County Police Department. Tracey said they have videotape of Wein at Harrah’s East Chicago Casino on the same night he later purchased the shotgun, just two days before the murders occurred.

“He drank coffee all night and from the looks of it broke even,” Tracey said.

Tracey said Wein had apparently been bailed out of financial trouble by his parents on previous occasions, which perhaps contributed to his decision to murder them as well.

“When we spoke with his brother and sister, they said their parents absolutely loved him and (Kristin),” said Tracey. “His mom was actually coming toward him with an early Christmas gift for him when he did it.”

Maxine West, a debt care counselor at the Consumer Credit Counselor Service of Greater New Orleans said she sees a great deal of psychological stress from the people coming to the non-profit agency with financial difficulty.

“They almost all mention not being able to sleep at night. Many of them start crying and telling you everything because you’re a non-biased party,” said West, who said they refer people to a “Copeline” in those instances. “We try and stay on track with what we’re trying to do financially. We’re not counselors in that respect.”

West said the greatest number of bankruptcy cases in the River Parishes come from St. John Parish, 76 of the 172 so far in 2002. West added that bankruptcies are up 24 percent from 2001 in the region, mostly related to the events of Sept. 11.

Marital problems, not money, seem to be more of a determining factor in the 1999 case of Marilyn Lemak. A doctor’s wife in the suburbs of Chicago, Ill., she put her children to sleep using drugs prescribed to treat her own depression before smothering them. Lemak then slashed her wrists with an Exacto-knife and swallowed about 50 aspirin tablets. She somehow survived until the next morning, when she awoke and called 911.

As in the Yates’ case, the jury rejected an insanity defense when it handed down the verdict in December. Lemak was only spared the death penalty because of a statewide moratorium on capital punishment.

Jeff Coen, the Chicago Tribune reporter who covered the case, said prosecutors depicted the killings as revenge on her estranged husband from whom she had filed for divorce two times, only to rescind later.

“She had found an e-mail from her husband’s new girlfriend about a ski trip they were going to take were she would finally get to meet the kids,” said Coen. “(Lemak) didn’t know it but the trip ended up being canceled. She murdered the kids on the weekend the trip was supposed to happen.”

While conducting research into similar incidents, Coen was stunned to find a nearly identical case in California occurring at the same time. Soccorro Caro was the wife of a suburban doctor whose marital problems prompted her to take the life of her three children before botching her own suicide. Her insanity plea – like Lemak’s – was rejected and the jury sentenced her to death.

“No suicide doesn’t mean they don’t have a mental disorder,” said Thompson. “But you do want to rule out a revenge situation. When you interview the other family members or friends, usually you’ll find out there are stressors.”

In David Roy’s case the immediate family is gone. Melissa Roy’s aunt, Fannie Givens, who raised her from 16, said no problems were ever mentioned during their weekly conversations. His neighbors described him as very private, with few visitors in the past couple of years.

But introversion is hardly an indicator of violent behavior when you consider Illinois resident Tomas Bahena, who last week shot his three children while they slept at his ex-wife’s house, killing one, and then taking his own life.

Bahena disguised a history of abuse with a jovial, stable visage to his neighbors and co-workers that has left the Glendale Heights, Ill., neighborhood in shock. Or consider Jeffrey Wein, who was an actor in community theater productions.

“He wasn’t a hermit. Far from it,” said Bill Dolan, the Hammond Times reporter who covered the case. “He had a very public life. What his private life was, is anyone’s guess.”