Mental disease of Little Rock gun suspect exonerates him

Man placed in DHS custody

A 23-year-old Little Rock man, who was arrested with a sawed-off shotgun and told police he was waiting to kill his cousin, has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing on mental health grounds.

James Earl Lambert has been jailed since his May 2015 arrest at west Little Rock apartments, where his cousin lived, by police investigating complaints from neighbors about a man with a gun in the area. Police reports show Lambert lived in an apartment across the street.

He was charged with attempted first-degree murder, criminal use of prohibited weapons, possession of a defaced firearm and terroristic threatening, felony charges that carry up to 48 years in prison.

But a state doctor and one hired by the defense have since diagnosed Lambert with schizophrenia, and court records show that prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed Lambert is not competent to stand trial.

Based on their recommendation, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson found Lambert innocent by reason of mental disease Wednesday.

The judge also ruled that Lambert continues to present a danger to the community, a finding that transfers custody of Lambert to the state Department of Human Services.

He will be required to undergo another mental evaluation by state doctors so they can determine a treatment regimen for Lambert and consider whether he continues to be a risk to the community.

Those findings will be delivered to another circuit judge who will decide whether Lambert should be released, institutionalized or placed in a monitored community treatment program.

Lambert can be kept in state custody indefinitely. To be released, he will have to complete five years without incident in the monitored program under the scrutiny of the judge.

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In May 2015, police found Lambert at the back of the Sanford Drive apartments with the loaded shotgun propped up against a wall next to him, according to an arrest report. He had two loaded 9mm pistol magazines and two 12-gauge shotgun shells.

Lambert told the arresting officer, Kari Reid, that a spirit had recently entered his body and told him that he would have to kill someone to save his mother's life.

He told Reid that he'd decided to kill his cousin, Joseph Udell, who lived at those apartments and that he'd been waiting for Udell for more than four hours. He repeated the statement to detectives later that day, court filings show.

According to his mental evaluation, he had told doctors during an August 2014 hospitalization brought on after smoking "sherm," marijuana laced with a hallucinogen, that he thought Udell and others were trying to kill him.

He was hospitalized about four months before his arrest after going to a hospital emergency room and reporting that he was hearing "feminine" voices that told him to kill others and himself. He was subsequently transferred to a Malvern mental institution for treatment.

But he went back to the emergency room about two weeks later, in February 2015, after asking his church pastor to give him money to buy a gun so he could kill someone, according to the report. That visit led to further treatment at the Malvern hospital, according to the report.

Metro on 01/13/2017

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