HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Johnstown native accused of killing two people in Blair County should be transferred to a state psychiatric facility while awaiting trial, his attorney said Wednesday.
The request by attorney David Shrager of Pittsburgh on behalf of Nicholas Adam Horner will be considered Tuesday at a hearing before Blair County Judge Jolene Kopriva.
Horner, 29, a 1999 graduate of Conemaugh Valley High School, is charged in the April 6 shooting deaths of Ray Williams, 64, and Scott Garlick, 19.
Williams was a lifelong resident of Northern Cambria Borough who had moved to Altoona, and Garlick was a high school senior from Hollidaysburg who was working at the 58th Street Subway sandwich shop, a short distance from the Logan Valley Mall.
Horner also is charged with attempted homicide and related charges in the wounding of Michelle Petty, a clerk at the sandwich shop.
Shrager’s petition includes a copy of a six-page evaluation by Dr. Edwin Tan, a Hollidaysburg psychiatrist who interviewed and evaluated Horner on June 1.
Horner and his family have said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of three deployments to the Middle East between 2002 and 2007.
Tan’s analysis found that Horner has PTSD in addition to panic disorder, major depression and a sleep disorder, but he is competent to stand trial.
The evaluation recommends that Horner can be better sustained until trial if he is in a facility to address his “multiple emotional and medical conditions,” Tan said.
Horner told Tan that he cannot remember robbing the Subway or the shootings.
“I can’t remember anything about it. I just remember I was Tasered, then I was in the back of the police car,” Horner said.
Previous events on April 6 were clear to Horner, who told Tan that he and his wife, Windy, took his two children to the school bus stop then went to Circuit City, where he purchased an external hard drive for his computer.
He took the computer for repair to a private home, and he and his wife went to Wal-Mart.
He became agitated with another motorist over a parking space, prompting him to make an obscene gesture, which sparked an argument with his wife.
Horner said he walked away from the parking lot and ended up at a bowling alley, where he drank a pitcher of beer in about an hour.
Tan said Horner was suffering from PTSD on the day of the murders. He was undergoing treatment for the disorder at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center at the time.
But the robbing of a small Subway in a relatively quiet neighborhood is “inconsistent and has very little to do with PTSD,” Tan wrote.
The defendant understands he is being charged with the crime and could get life in prison or death if convicted. He is able to participate in his defense, Tan said.
Horner told Tan about some of his war experiences that he links to PTSD. He recalled seeing a bomb that killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded several others.
He also spoke of bloated bodies and the smell of rotting corpses.
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