Branford Police Dept
Lishan Wang
Superior Court Judge Roland D. Fasano ruled Tuesday that at this juncture Dr. Lishan Wang, charged with shooting Yale doctor Vajinder Toor to death outside his Branford condo last April, is not competent to stand trial.
After listening to psychiatric testimony for more than one hour in Connecticut Superior Court on Church Street in New Haven, Judge Fasano ruling from the bench, found that Dr. Wang is not capable of assisting in his own defense and is unable to understand the proceedings against him, the legal definitions outlined by statute.
“At this juncture I am going to err on the side of the medical expert,” the judge said.
The competency hearing arose early in the Wang case, earlier than usual, because Dr. Wang told Judge Fasano in August that he wants to fire his public defenders and represent himself at his murder trial.
Before this could happen, the judge told him, he would first have to be examined by a psychiatrist. Under Connecticut law, a defendant is not competent to stand trial, whether he represents himself or not, if he is unable to understand the proceedings against him or is unable to assist in his own defense.
“I am satisfied by a preponderance of the evidence,” the judge said, that Dr. Wang has had difficulty communicating with his currently assigned public defenders. The judge said he agreed with the medical expert that Dr. Wang was suspicious and guarded, refusing to provide information about his prior medical records. His actions, the judge said, “went well beyond the norm.”
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Gene R. Calistro, Jr., had the burden to prove that Dr. Wang, 44, is competent to stand trial. He called Dr. Keith Shebairo, a psychiatrist who also holds a law degree, to the stand to question him about the two interviews he had with Dr. Wang on Aug. 31 and Sept. 7 at the Garner Correctional Institution in Newton. Dr. Shebairo provided the court with a written report of his findings. The report was later sealed.
Over the next 75 minutes Dr. Shebairo answered questions and discussed Dr. Wang’s state of mind. As he did, Dr. Wang, seated at the defense table, his feet in chains, his hands in cuffs behind his back, kept his head bowed. He wore a tan prison jump suit.
When he completed his testimony, the psychiatrist concluded that in his medical opinion Dr. Wang is so guarded, suspicious and stuck on certain topics that he is not competent to stand trial at this time.
At a second interview lasting three hours and thirty minutes, Dr. Wang, who has demanded a mandarin interpreter at prior court sessions, answered questions in English without any trouble, Dr. Shebairo said. Nor did Dr. Wang consult a Mandarin interpreter at his side Tuesday.
According to Dr. Shebairo, Dr. Wang, born and raised in China, would not discuss his parents or his country. He would not say anything at all about himself before he came to the United States. He emigrated to the United States in 2004. He did, however, talk about his wife and three children who live in Marietta, Georgia.
Dr. Shebario said Dr. Wang told him he did not trust the (legal) system. At one point, he suggested that the prosecution and defense worked together. Dr. Wang said he did not trust giving his attorneys any information.
Dr. Shebairo also told the court that Dr. Wang had a “master plan,” one he refused to unveil. “He said it was very important for him to say something at trial,” but he would not share that information with his attorneys. Nor would he talk about his own criminal case.” When Dr. Wang was captured by Branford police minutes after the shooting, police found a photograph of Dr. Toor in his vehicle.
One part of his life that he did want to discuss was a civil lawsuit that Dr. Wang brought against Kinsgbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, the hospital where he first met Dr. Toor and other doctors.
Police say Wang methodically set out to seek revenge against Dr. Toor, his supervisor, and two other physicians whom he blamed for ending his medical career at Kingsbrook. Dr. Wang was fired from the hospital after a confrontation between the two men took place at the hospital on May 15, 2008. On that day, the two men had a heated argument over Dr. Wang’s failure to respond to calls while on hospital duty.
He later told police that the confrontation centered on his failure to promptly return to the intensive care unit at the hospital after “Vanjander paged him.” An investigation ensued, and he was fired. His medical career came to an end.
He would later tell Dr. Shebario that over the past two years, from 2008 to 2010, he was deeply depressed. “He said the sky was falling. He was tired, he gained ten pounds. He felt he was a burden to his family and he had difficulty sleeping. “
Then one morning last April, he got into his car in Georgia and using Google maps went to Dr. Toor’s home, which he shared with his wife and son in Branford. In his car he carried three guns, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and in his right jacket pocket, two fully loaded semi- automatic ammo magazines, according to police. He waited until Dr. Toor, 33, left his home, and before he could get into his car for his ride to Yale, he allegedly opened fire. He also tried to kill Dr. Toor’s wife, according to police.
In the courtroom Tuesday, Calistro sought to show that Dr. Wang was selective in which case he would talk about. He seemed eager to talk about the civil law suit he filed against Kingsbrook on July 28, 2009.
On that day, Dr. Wang filed a 23-page civil rights action against the Kingsbrook facility that was pending in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn when the shooting took place. In the complaint, which accuses the medical center of discriminatory actions against Dr. Wang because he is Chinese, he asks that his job be reinstated. He also asks for punitive damages.
But Dr. Wang was mum on his own criminal case. Calistro sought to show that Dr. Shebairo’s conclusion that Dr. Wang was not competent to stand trial was based on Dr. Wang’s silence.
“How can you formulate this conclusion if he [Dr. Wang] won’t talk about it?”
Calistro tried to show Dr. Wang was competent. He noted that Dr. Wang was an educated person who understands the way the criminal justice system works, that he understood what bail meant, could grasp other legal procedures and understood the role of the judge. Calistro’s position was that by choice Dr. Wang is refusing to discuss his own criminal case and the facts about his past with his own attorneys.
Calistro also reminded the court that Dr. Wang came from China, a country whose criminal justice system might well elicit fear.
Dr. Shebairo wasn’t buying it. He told the court that Dr. Wang had read all the police reports from the Branford Police Department, reports that detailed the murder scene and Dr. Wang’s confession. Still he would not answer any questions about the charges against him. “This impairs his ability to work with his attorneys,” the psychiatrist said.
Tejas Bhatt, one of Dr. Wang’s public defenders, asked Dr. Shebairo if Dr. Wang was paranoid because he was so suspicious, even with his own attorneys. Dr. Shebairo said he could not draw that conclusion because he had not conducted a full diagnostic examination.
Dr. Shebairo also testified that he had had a number of conversations with Dr. Wang’s defense team. They described similar difficulties in communicating with him. Often Dr. Wang would simply get stuck on words or issues.
The judge said that he hopes that at some point Dr. Wang can be mentally restored. To that end he sent him to Connecticut Valley Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Middletown, for in-patient supervision and a full diagnostic evaluation. He will be there for 60 days. Dr. Wang will return to court on Nov. 29.
“Competency is a serious issue,” Judge Fasano said. “And this defendant has a desire to represent himself.” But at this point, the judge concluded Dr. Wang was not competent to stand trial.
The operative term is “at this point.” Defendants in similar situations have recovered sufficiently to stand trial at a later date.
“We will be back, “Calistro told reporters outside the courtroom.
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