HOUSTON: The man accused of killing six members of his former wife’s family, including four children, at their suburban Houston home collapsed in court on Friday when details of the crime were read aloud and was wheeled out in an office chair by sheriff’s deputies.
Ronald Lee Haskell, 33, was in court wearing orange prison attire for a hearing after being charged on Thursday with capital murder in the shooting deaths of his former wife’s sister, her husband and four of their children, aged 4 to 14.
He was being held without bond. Police have said Haskell entered the home on Wednesday posing as a delivery man and searching for his former wife, then methodically executed members of the family.
Doug Durham, Haskell’s public defender, said his client had been in and out of hospitals in Utah and California with a history of mental illness and that he was not taking prescribed medication at the time of the killings.
He was expected to face a hearing on his mental capacity. A grand jury will decide whether he will be tried for capital murder, which carries the possibility of the death penalty.
Haskell said “Yes, sir” to the judge after his rights were read and then fainted to the floor as details of the crime were read in court by the prosecutor. Sheriff’s deputies picked him up and wheeled him out of the courtroom in an office chair.
Haskell is accused of fatally shooting two boys ages 4 and 14, two girls ages 7 and 9, and their parents Stephen Stay, 39, and Katie Stay, 33. Five of them were dead when found and one of the children died after being air-lifted to a hospital. Cassidy Stay, 15, survived a gunshot wound to the head.
Cassidy was released from the hospital earlier on Friday and is expected to make a full recovery, the hospital said.
Reuters
