Judge questions Damas in family-killing case, orders another mental exam

With just over a month to go before a planned September trial, Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt ordered Friday that Mesac Damas undergo yet another mental health exam.

Hardt’s order came at the end of a half-hour hearing, during which Damas sometimes ignored the judge’s questions, refused to answer him directly and instead gave courtroom speeches.

Damas, 41, who is accused of killing his wife and five children in 2009, reiterated that he wants to avoid trial by pleading guilty to six counts of premeditated first-degree murder. He said he wants to be put to death, a claim he has made since the day of his arrest in Haiti.

“The state’s trying to kill me, right? They’re trying to prove that I’m guilty of this charge. That’s their job, right? OK, I’ll make it easier for the state,” Damas said, turning to the three assistant state attorneys seated to his left.

“State, OK, I’m guilty of this charge. Let my plea be received right now.”

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Damas’ statements clearly frustrated Hardt, who repeatedly told him that pleading guilty wasn’t that simple.

“You can’t just stand up and say, ‘I’m guilty,’ and then the court says, ‘OK, I sentence you to death,’ ” Hardt explained. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Friday’s hearing technically began with a Faretta inquiry to determine whether Damas is competent to dismiss his court-appointed attorneys and handle future court proceedings on his own. Damas reiterated his desire to represent himself last month. However, his behavior in court and unwillingness to answer questions directly made conducting that inquiry difficult.

The two doctors Hardt ordered to examine Damas should help him make that determination during a hearing Aug. 18. But if the doctors determine Damas not only isn’t competent to represent himself, but isn’t even competent to stand trial – a lesser hurdle – it could again stall the nearly 8-year-old case beyond the planned Sept. 5 trial date.  

Questions about Damas’ mental health have dogged the case for years.

In 2014, a previous judge declared Damas temporarily incompetent to stand trial because he suffered from a “major mental illness.” Damas spent several months in a state mental hospital, where his competency was restored.

Last year, his attorneys stated they thought Damas suffers from a traumatic brain injury.

At times over the years, Damas has been disruptive in court, prone to outbursts and preaching about finding Jesus. His weight and appearance have fluctuated as he went on self-imposed fasts, and he has talked about voodoo and being possessed by demons.

“This case would be difficult even with a client who was completely cooperative,” James Ermacora, one of Damas’ lawyers, said after the hearing. “Add to the mix a defendant who wants to represent himself, who is to some extent unresponsive to questions.

“It’s clear from his court appearances that he, to some extent, has his own agenda.”

Damas, who wore a chin-strap beard and bushy hair, started Friday’s hearing with his head down as Hardt explained the reason for the inquiry and the value of Damas keeping his attorneys, Ermacora and Kevin Shirley.

“Mr. Damas, you need to listen to this, OK,” Hardt said. “Mr. Damas, you need to listen to what I’m saying.”

Damas stood for most of the rest of the hearing, his hands shackled in front of his body. At one point, he bent at the waist and picked up a glass of water with his teeth to take a drink.

Hardt had to ask three times before he could get Damas to state his age. When he asked Damas whether he understood the value in keeping his lawyers, Damas repeatedly said, “I don’t have a lawyer, sir,” insisting that he was represented by God.

When asked whether he ever had been diagnosed with a mental illness, Damas said, “Nothing I know of, sir.”

Damas again stated he didn’t want to go to trial, in part to save his family and his wife’s family from having to see gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos.

“Is that what you guys want, to bring tears to peoples’ eyes? It’s not right,” Damas said.

“I take full responsibility for these actions,” he added. “Let me go through this by myself. I don’t want my people, my wife’s people, to go through this again.”

Hardt told Damas he might not accept a guilty plea. He then explained that there are two phases to the trial, the guilt phase and the sentencing phase.

If Damas doesn’t want to participate, he said, the trial could go on without him. He could watch the proceedings from a monitor in his jail cell.

Damas also said he doesn’t want his lawyers to present mitigating evidence that could save him from a death sentence. That creates an ethical quandary for his attorneys.

“It’s like a doctor, doctor-assisted suicide,” Shirley said after the hearing. “We have an obligation to fight for his life, not to assist him in taking his own life.”

The family of Damas’ wife, Guerline Dieu, sat in the courtroom Friday wearing white T-shirts with photos of the six victims reading “Dieu Angels.” They declined to comment after the hearing.