Medication Nation

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1421150.html

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008 | Page 1A

In Sacramento, he punched a 76-year-old woman in the face and kicked her in the head, twice. In Burlingame, he broke another woman’s jaw and knocked out three of her teeth. In San Bruno, he smashed in the windows of a house with a shovel and threatened to kill everybody inside.

He also told staff at the Sacramento Mental Health Treatment Center “voices from the TV were telling him to kill.”

Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and with a 20-year history of violence, Ofiu Edwards Foto still wound up living in a tiny, unlocked group home in Oak Park, where authorities say he exploded into violence again.

This time, on Sept. 5, investigators said, 6-foot-2, 300-pound Foto grabbed a wooden chair and beat Pausta Theresia Sibarani, 65, to death with it. He also is accused of gravely injuring her husband, Tumber Purba, 69. They both worked in the facility called Sandy’s Guest Home.

At Foto’s arraignment on Wednesday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Savage delayed proceedings until Feb. 20 while the defendant’s lawyer decides whether to file a motion on his client’s mental competency.

The case spotlights the gap between California’s criminal justice and the requirements of the mental health system.

“It’s a danger that’s out there a lot – it’s a time bomb,” said Robert J. Saria, a Sacramento defense lawyer and former prosecutor who specializes in mental health cases. “We all kind of hold our breath.”

Such homicides are a rarity, but according to Saria, they shouldn’t surprise anybody who knows the interplay between the mental health and justice systems.

“For some people, it is a foreseeable gamble when they get out,” Saria said.

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