GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) — On Wednesday, forensic psychologist Dr. Laura Serrano-Amerigo who works in NGRI cases or is not guilty by reason of insanity shared explosive testimony from her face-to-face sanity evaluation and personality assessment with Cohee back in May 2022.
She told prosecutors he was not suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the murder and does not meet the legal standard of insanity.
But, when the defense took the podium they pointed out Dr. Serrano-Amerigo was not a licensed psychologist at the time of the evaluation, was not a specialist in neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, and Cohee was only her 4th overall sane evaluation at the time.
Dr. Serrano-Amerigo diagnosed Cohee with autism, ADHD, and antisocial personality disorder, and said a person can have severe mental disorders, but still be legally sane.
On Thursday, the prosecution put the good dr. back on the stand to talk more about Cohee’s mental health.
In her interview with Cohee, Cohee said he could not stop thinking about violence, or being violent towards others multiple times a day since he was 15 years old including stabbing them, hitting them with a hammer, or biting them, and the last time he was in that state he killed Barnes.
Cohee also said he had persistent thoughts for a year where it felt like eyes were staring at him from the walls and furniture and dug out Barne’s eyes because he didn’t like them and it felt like his eyes were cameras and they were recording him.
Dr. Serrano-Amerigo said Cohee’s delusions were based on feelings, not hallucinations so, she would not change Cohee’s diagnosis from sane at the time of the murder.
The prosecution pointed out that although Dr. Serrano-Amerigo wasn’t a licensed psychologist at the time of the analysis, her colleague sure is. author and board-certified psychologist Dr. Gray completed the 6-week sane evaluation with dr. Serrano-Amerigo in may 2022. it took about six weeks.
Dr. Laura Serrano-Amerigo testified for more than six hours over the span of two days.
On Friday a digital forensics expert will take us inside the mind of Cohee yet again by going through all the data and metadata on his cell phone.
