A South Jacksonville man charged with murdering his mother and attempting to murder his brother in 2018 has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
26 year old Glenn Van Avery’s case was heard in Morgan County Court this afternoon, with stipulations filed by two psychiatrists from the Illinois Department of Human Services during a bench trial setting. Van Avery was found fit to stand trial in April of last year after several mental health evaluations.
Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll says that DHS will now have to submit a treatment plan for Van Avery within the next 30 days prior to sentencing: “At the bench trial, the state and Mr. Van Avery’s defense counsel Tom Piper presented a stipulated statement of facts on the case and stipulated to 2 reports of experts. As a result of the evidence that was presented, the defendant was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Because of that ruling, he was remanded to the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services. He has been in the custody of the Department of Human Services for going on about a year and a half now. He was remanded back into their custody by statute. When somebody is found not guilty by reason of insanity on a case like this, they are remanded back to the Department of Human Services who is then ordered to do an evaluation and report, and the defendant will appear in front of this court again on August 24th for what the statute terms as a sentencing hearing on the verdict.”
With the conclusion of the Nathan Henson trial and now an end of the Van Avery case in sight, Noll says these are some of the saddest cases he has had to hear in court recent memory: “Murder cases are among the saddest cases that we have to deal with. When the actual murder itself is the result of one’s mental health issues, somehow that makes it even sadder and harder to deal with. My heart goes out to the victims’ families certainly in these two cases. There’s no sentence, no verdict that could bring a loved one back but hopefully the end of these cases presents some form of closure for the victims’ families.”
Noll says he expects Van Avery’s sentence to a secure DHS facility will likely be for natural life, as he has been deemed as a threat to himself and the public at large. Van Avery’s sentencing will be heard in Morgan County Court on August 24th at 2:30PM.