Watch Now
NewsTreasure CoastRegion St Lucie County

Actions

Day 4: Tyler Hadley resentencing hearing

Defense testimony for Tyler Hadley continued Thursday in his resentencing hearing. Hadley's attorneys called on a psychiatrist and psychologist to weigh in on his ability to be rehabilitated.
Posted
and last updated

On day four of the Tyler Hadley resentencing hearing, the defense called on Dr. Eugene Beresin, a psychiatrist who reviewed medical records and evaluations conducted on Hadley.

Hadley killed his parents with a hammer seven years ago when he was 17. Police said Hadley threw a party at their Port St. Lucie home after the 2011 murders. Hadley pleaded no contest to murder charges in 2014 to avoid trial. He had his double life sentence overturned by the courts in 2016 because of changes to Florida's juvenile sentencing laws.

Hadley's defense team wants a judge to reduce his life sentences to the state minimum of 40 years. 

On Thursday, Hadley’s defense called on the doctor to weigh in on whether Hadley’s behavior in the last 7 years has shown an improvement and could help in predicting his mental stability. The doctor said records show Hadley has “become reflective.” Dr. Beresin pointed out that the fact that he has been able to look back and talk about his murderous and pre-murderous behavior shows his maturity and remorse. 

Dr. Beresin said this case is an outlier. The psychiatrist said he’s “never seen or heard of a murder without prior history of violent behavior.” 

Beresin also testified about the possible state of Hadley’s brain at the time of the murder. He talked about how the parts of the brain that are impulsive and passionate are more dominant than parts of that look to logic and reason. 

The prosecutor questioned Dr. Beresin if the pictures of the brain now can tell him whether Hadley is going to murder again. The prosecutor pointed out that the doctor only reviewed medical records and evaluations presented to him by the defense, and admitted he never looked over any other witness testimony. 

The prosecutor consistently asked Dr. Beresin if he knew based on his professional opinion if Hadley would kill again, the doctor replied that he can only say what the probability is based on his record over the last 7 years. 

Hadley's attorneys called a second witness, Dr. Robert Kinscherff to talk about his evaluation of Tyler. For Dr. Kinscherff, how Tyler killed his parents and what he did after gives insight into what was psychologically going on with him at the time. He mentioned Hadley's actions of piling items on top of his parents' bodies before throwing a party at the home. 

"People who commit these kind of targeted attacks often have not given a great deal of thought to the aftermath of the attack," said Dr. Kinscherff. 
 Dr. Kinscherff read reports of sessions other doctors had with Hadley and talked about his time meeting with Hadley. He said Hadley talked about his thoughts about murdering his parents one to three months before the brutal attack. He said he agreed with other psychologists who treated Hadley that over time he has shown maturity and improvement of social function.  He referred to a conversation he had with Hadley about if he's ever thought about what led him to the path of killing his parents. 
"He said he was concerned about doing that because to try to understand what had unfolded seemed to him like an effort to justify and there would never be any way that he could justify it to himself," added Dr. Kinscherff. 
On Wednesday, his grandmother took the stand and talked about Hadley's low self-esteem before the double murder.
 
Copyright 2018 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

At WPTV, It Starts with Listening