Last Friday, Senior District Judge Richard Hall accepted a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity from Nathaniel DeGeare '99, sparing him from a murder trial in the death of his 60-year-old mother, Mary "Gwen" DeGeare. In April 2005, he fatally stabbed Gwen at her home in Colorado, DeGeare told police, and was arrested on May 1 of last year.
In interviews with police, DeGeare, 28, said that he was the Antichrist and that he had an Oedipal complex, or a sexual attraction to his mother. Because of his plea, Hall ordered DeGeare remanded to a state mental hospital until a judge and doctors determine that he can be released into society.
Though Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Kirkman did not oppose DeGeare's plea, a statement from her office said that she intends to challenge his eventual release from the mental hospital.
DeGeare matriculated at Dartmouth in September 1995, but withdrew in June 1997 without declaring a major or receiving a degree. Before coming to Dartmouth, DeGeare graduated with honors from Cheyenne Mountain High School in 1995. There he was a member of the choir, the track team and the National Honor Society.
In August 2004, DeGeare left a yoga-based spiritual commune in Seattle and returned to live in his mother's home in Colorado Springs. He told police investigators that he often quarrelled with his mother over how much independence she gave him at home.
Dr. Phillip Ballard, a psychiatrist who examined DeGeare after his arrest, testified at a preliminary court appearance that DeGeare was suffering from "underlying, chronic mental illness" and that he was "psychotic" at the time of the murder.
Gwen DeGeare was found dead in her bed on April 30, 2005. During a search of her house, police discovered a butcher-type knife with a bent handle in a water-filled bathtub. A medical examination of Nathaniel after the murder but before the arrest revealed that he had superficial cuts on his wrists.
Nathaniel's only involvement with Colorado police officers prior to his arrest occurred in 1999 when he received a ticket for a lapsed license plate in Boulder County.
