EVERETT — Forest Jackson’s family and friends packed a Snohomish County courtroom Friday morning to witness a young man admit to stabbing Jackson to death last year.
The Mountlake Terrace man, 20, was attacked March 29, 2014. Detectives believe that Toby Sauceda, 21, became angry that Jackson refused to give him back his stash of Xanax, a prescription drug primarily used to treat anxiety. Witnesses reported that Jackson was concerned for Sauceda’s safety and didn’t believe he should have unfettered access to Xanax. Sauceda didn’t have a prescription for the drug, court papers said.
Sauceda faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in July. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
Defense attorney Walter Peale said Friday that he had advised Sauceda that he could pursue a diminished capacity defense at trial. Superior Court Judge David Kurtz was told that Sauceda was suffering from a mental health crisis at the time and was under the influence of a “mind- altering” drugs.
About an hour before the stabbing, a Mountlake Terrace police officer had pleaded with medical staff at Swedish/Edmonds hospital to have Sauceda evaluated for a possible involuntary commitment, according to police reports.
Sauceda was exhibiting strange behavior hours earlier when police were called to the apartment for a separate incident. Sauceda had called 911 to report that he had sexually assaulted someone and later told police he didn’t know who he was or where he lived. An officer had planned to give him a ride home but decided to take him to the hospital.
He was aware Sauceda had threatened to kill himself in front of police officers a month earlier.
The officer reported telling the hospital’s mental health professional and an emergency room doctor about Sauceda’s “escalating violent history.” The hospital declined to call a county mental health professional and told the officer Sauceda would be fine once the drugs wore off, court records said.
Sauceda reportedly told a nurse he wasn’t crazy and was trying to avoid going to jail, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Bob Langbehn wrote in court papers.
Officers arrived at the hospital with Sauceda at 12:25 a.m. They were called to the homicide scene at 1:48 a.m. It’s unclear from records exactly how long Sauceda was in the hospital.
“Immediately before this crime was committed I tried to commit myself to a hospital fearful of my deteriorating mental state. If I had been admitted, I would not have committed this crime. I do not raise that fact as a defense to this charge,” Sauceda’s attorney wrote on behalf of Sauceda in the plea paperwork.
His client declined to take the case to trial out of a “sense of responsibility and his remorse,” Peale said.
The case highlighted some of the tension between police officers and health professionals when dealing with people living with mental illness.
Mountlake Terrace police said they were frustrated that their concerns about Sauceda’s behavior seemed to go unheard at the hospital. They were familiar with Sauceda’s history and despite what he might have told staff, they were worried enough to ask repeatedly that he be seen by a county mental health professional.
A hospital spokesman told The Herald in July that a person must meet certain criteria, such as exhibiting signs of extreme impairment, for the hospital to hold someone and call in a county mental health professional.
The law is strict about who can be held against their will. The patient must be deemed an imminent threat to themselves or others, or be so gravely disabled that he is unable to care for himself. A person also has a right to voluntary treatment first. If the patient says he is willing to talk to someone, such as a social worker, and appears to be honest about his condition, a designated mental health provider isn’t going to move to have him held against his will.
Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this month signed into law a measure that would allow family members to petition a court to step in if a designated mental health professional declines to involuntarily commit someone.
Jackson is survived by his parents and sister. He graduated in 2011 from Mountlake Terrace High School, where he played saxophone for the jazz band.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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