Charles Ryan, shown here in his December 2011 mugshot from the Saline County Detention Center where he’s been held since the death of his stepfather Carl Crouch, was suffering a meth-induced psychosis, according to the forensic psychiatrist hired by the defense to ask for a “not guilty by reason of insanity verdict”…which Ryan got, from Judge Walden Morris, on November 20, 2015.

Doctors: Meth contributed to the death of Harrisburg man

SALINE CO. – A stipulated bench trial held during the middle of November ended with a decision by Judge Walden Morris that is rare in the state of Illinois: A man who murdered his stepfather declared not guilty by reason of insanity.

The verdict rendered by Morris on Nov. 19 after two days of deliberation came about after hearing the evidence in the case of Charles Ryan, the 45-year-old man who, on December 23, 2011, attacked and stabbed his stepfather, Carl Crouch, 59, to death on Barnett Street in Harrisburg.

Ryan had been housed at the Saline County Detention Center on a million dollar bail ($100,000 cash bond) since his arrest, and his case had been laboring through the court system since his hiring of Granite City-area attorney Morgan Scroggins.

The stipulated bench trial, however, finally started on Nov. 17.

Those familiar with a stipulated bench trial know the difference between that and a regular bench trial, however, and know that there wasn’t really a ‘trial’ at all…at least not in the traditional sense of the word.

In a stipulated bench trial, both sides – defense and the state – get together and hash out the details of what largely amounts to a plea agreement: They decide on an outcome (verdict) and the judge listens to both sides’ input, then determines an appropriate verdict and sentence. No testimony is given unless it’s stipulated statements from agreed-upon investigators or experts.

This is what occurred as a part of Ryan’s “trial”: Experts in the case as retained by both sides issued their opinions, and Morris made his decision on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 20 – not guilty by reason of insanity, a verdict which is reached in only 1 percent of cases in which it’s offered as a verdict in the state of Illinois.

Meth-related psychosis

According to the stipulation presented that Friday, Ryan had had problems for a long time prior to his stepfather’s death and many saw a marked deterioration in recent years.

And according to the defense expert, Michael E. Althoff, PhD, a forensic psychiatrist, there was a little more contributing to Ryan’s deteriorated mental state: meth use.

In the stipulation, it was noted by both sides that were Althoff to have testified, he would have told about not only Ryan’s history of numerous psychotic episodes, but also Ryan’s chronic meth use and an overdose, which occurred at an unspecified point in time in the past. Dr. Althoff would have testified that in his opinion, Ryan was experiencing psychotic symptoms at the time of the offense and that Ryan suffered from a mental disease or defect diagnosed as Methamphetamine-Induced Psychotic Disorder with Delusions and Hallucinations.

The state’s witness, Dr. Terry M. Killian, concurred…to an extent. While Killian stipulation made no remarks about meth use, his investigation of records, reports and interviews with Ryan and those around him, including Egyptian Public and Mental Health Department reports, indicated that Ryan was suffering from a mental disease of defect of psychosis or otherwise specified, rendering him incapable of appreciating the criminality of his conduct at that time.

Naked on the porch

Part of what the doctors reviewed came from law enforcement agencies, including those who initially responded to the situation, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department in Murphysboro.

Officers of that department would have testified that they were dispatched to the home of Wade Glasser, who had reported to police the presence of a naked man on his porch: Ryan, who was “out of his head.” All officers would have testified that Ryan was making indiscernible utterances and statements, including that “ a guy named Hambone told him to come here and play a joke on these people.” They reported that he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, but they smelled none; and Ryan told them he didn’t do drugs. When they asked him to tell them what was going on, he said “Hambone told me in his dying breath that if I needed surgery on my cerebrum to come to the house in Murphysboro by McDonalds and beg for help,” all of this occurring on Dec. 23, 2011.

Glasser, were he to have testified, would have said that he didn’t know Ryan, and that Ryan was talking to himself when on Glasser’s porch.

Various medical professionals, from Mr. Vernon, DuQuoin, Herrin, Harrisburg and Eldorado would have testified that during emergency room visits in the past, or other medical treatment, Ryan presented conditions including hallucinations, paranoia, confusion, depression and anxiety. They would also say that he had, in the previous weeks prior to Crouch’s death, been in an ER (in DuQuoin) complaining that he had been poisoned with cyanide, this by his mother and uncle. At Eygptian in Eldorado, he’d claimed that he’d been hearing voices since 2003.

Sons killed in four-wheeler accident

To shed further light on what may have caused more trauma in Ryan’s life, his wife, Djuna Ryan, was interviewed. Her stipulated testimony was that they two had been together since 2004, and that after their two sons were killed in a four-wheeler accident (the time frame of this tragedy not disclosed), Ryan suffered two nervous breakdowns.

Djuna would have testified that in the several weeks leading up to the offense of Crouch’s death, Ryan had been yelling at himself in the mirror, wearing headphones while hearing voices in his head, suffering from intense paranoia, claiming that someone was out to kill him, and claiming that there were people in the attic or outside the house. He had nailed an access door to the attic shut, and had duct taped holes in the ceiling and screwed windows shut so that people couldn’t get in; he also taped around the doors and windows of their room for fear they were going to be gassed.

She also said that Ryan was very close to his mother and stepfather, and didn’t understand why Ryan would hurt Carl Crouch.

Ryan’s mother was to have testified to the same; as well as that his delusions were becoming more intense.

State’s witnesses

For the state, Ryan’s mother would have testified about the day of the incident, when she left the house that morning at about 7:30-8 a.m.

When she called home to check on her husband at about 5 p.m., she was informed that Ryan had locked Crouch in the bathroom of the house for 3 hours. But when she arrived back home at about 9 p.m., she found her husband lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. Ryan wasn’t home, and his car was not at the house.

The state would also have called investigators into the matter, including Harrisburg Detective Curt Hustedde, who was the one who actually noted that he found Crouch dead, with two knives impaled in the body protruding from the left shoulder area.

Illinois State Police investigator Bryan Harms would have testified that he had interviewed Ryan on video, during which time Ryan stated that he “killed the son of a bitch because he thought Carl Crouch had killed Charles Ryan’s relatives,” stating also to Harms that he stayed at the residence for 30 to 40 minutes before leaving, and removing his clothing because they had Crouch’s blood on them (resulting in the state of nudity on Glasser’s porch.)

Final statements

Finally, Walden reviewed in the stipulation that he would have heard from Dr. John Heidingsfelder, regional pathologist who performed Crouch’s autopsy; Saline County Coroner Jerry Doug Watson; and Dr. Fred D. Klug, PhD., who would have been the only one that would have testified that he found the defendant competent to stand trial.

But Morris did not. Instead, he ruled that Ryan was not only incompetent, but was ‘not guilty’ by reason of insanity, this coming after the stipulation was read into the record on the afternoon of the 20th.

This, explained the prosecution, did not mean that Ryan did not kill his stepfather; only that he was in such a state of mind when he did it that his mental capacities were compromised, and he literally didn’t know what he was doing when he stabbed the man and killed him.

A person who receives such a judgment is not able to go free, however.

Saline County State’s Attorney Mike Henshaw said the likely option at this point is that Ryan will be remanded to the care of the Illinois Department of Human Services for custody. He will not be in prison, but instead will be institutionalized for his own safety and the safety of those around him.

A status hearing has been set for Ryan, who remains housed at SCDC, for December 22.