A Jacksonville man facing life imprisonment for alleged predatory criminal sexual assault of a minor is set to be re-evaluated by a psychologist.
36 year old Larry D. Johnson was evaluated by Dr. Daniel J. Cuneo back in January of last year. Johnson is facing four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in relation to events that happened to two juveniles in Jacksonville in September 2018.
Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll explains that the court has now asked a second expert, Dr. Terry Killian to rule whether Johnson now qualifies to plead not guilty by reason of insanity: “Back in February 2020, the defendant was unfit to stand trial and was remanded to the Department of Human Services to a secure facility for treatment. He was treated, and ultimately, transferred back to the Morgan County Detention Facility after that treatment. There was a hearing and the defendant was fit to stand trial at that point. Since that time, the defendant’s attorney, Mr. [Tom] Piper has asked the court, and that motion was granted, that the defendant be evaluated for the purpose of [being found] not guilty by reason of insanity. The defense attorney, Mr. Piper, engaged Dr. Cuneo to perform that evaluation. However, Dr. Cuneo indicated in his evaluation that he couldn’t evaluate for not guilty by reason of insanity purposes, because, in his opinion, the defendant is still unfit to stand trial.”
Noll says that the motion of evaluation for not guilty by reason of insanity is tabled until Dr. Killian provides a report to the court within the next few months. During court today, Morgan County Judge Chris Reif asked Johnson directly to take care of himself, because there was some indication that Johnson had not been eating regularly and taking prescribed medication. Johnson told the court he wasn’t going to comply because he didn’t think the medication was helping him.
Johnson’s case is due for a status hearing in Morgan County Court on October 19th.