Report says teen was insane when he killed his father.
By: Sharlee DiMenichi
A Dayton man charged with killing his father was legally insane at the time of the crime but is psychologically fit to be tried, said Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Kapsak at a status conference Friday at the county courthouse in New Brunswick.
State Superior Court Judge Frederick De Vesa plans to hear testimony from a state-appointed forensic psychiatrist who Mr. Kapsak said found that 19-year-old Michael Janicki was too ill to evaluate the morality of his actions when he stabbed his sleeping father with an ornamental sword in July.
The psychiatrist, Louis Schlesinger of Maplewood, found Mr. Janicki, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, competent to stand trial, Mr. Kapsak said.
Mr. Janicki was silent during the conference. He gazed across the courtroom at his mother, Cheryl Janicki, who clutched her hands, pressed her lips together and cried throughout the proceedings. Midway through the conference, Mr. Janicki winced slightly and averted his eyes from her.
A psychiatrist hired by Mr. Janicki’s defense attorney, William Fetky, previously found Mr. Janicki both insane at the time of the slaying and unfit for trial. Mr. Fetky said he would not contest Dr. Schlesinger’s findings.
"We will agree with the doctor in all of his findings , including his finding that Michael is competent to stand trial," Mr. Fetky said.
After the hearing, Mr. Fetky said that disputing Dr. Schlesinger’s conclusions would lengthen Mr. Janicki’s stay in the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, where he is being held.
If Judge De Vesa finds Mr. Janicki not guilty due to insanity, the young man would be committed to a psychiatric hospital where his eligibility for release would be evaluated every six months, Mr. Kapsak said. For purposes of legal defense, insanity is defined as being too ill either to understand the nature of one’s actions or to know whether they were right or wrong, Mr. Kapsak said.
Mr. Kapsak said Dr. Schlesinger found that he was incompetent to morally evaluate his behavior at the time of the killing.
"Although he knew the nature and quality of his acts, in this examiner’s opinion, he did not know that what he was doing was wrong," Mr. Kapsak said after the conference.
Mr. Kapsak said Dr. Schlesinger concluded Mr. Janicki was delusional and hallucinating the night of the killing.
Mr. Kapsak would not specify what Dr. Schlesinger’s report said Mr. Janicki saw or believed himself to be doing.
Mr. Kapsak said he had the option to seek a second opinion but that he believed Dr. Schlesinger’s evaluation.
"I put my trust in him when I consulted him and I trust his findings," Mr. Kapsak said.

