Portland — A psychologist testified Tuesday that he diagnosed Jeremy Christian with autism spectrum disorder and that sometimes people with that condition lose emotional control of themselves, like on the afternoon Christian fatally stabbed two men on a MAX train in May 2017.
“Emotional control is often one of the issues that people with autism have,” forensic psychologist Timothy Derning of Sonoma, California, told jurors. “… If there’s a disruption in their world, they can fly off into temper tantrums or rages.”
Derning was one of two psychologists to take the stand Tuesday. It was the ninth day of trial and the second day that defense attorneys presented their case that Christian acted in self-defense and has cognitive deficits that led him to react violently and out of fear when others on the train confronted him about his loud, hate-filled rant on May 26, 2017.
On cross-examination, prosecutor Don Rees asked Derning: “Most people with autism spectrum disorder don’t commit crimes?”
“Correct,” Derning said.
Rees expressed skepticism about the timing of Derning’s diagnosis of Christian, which came only after Christian was arrested for fatally stabbing the two passengers and seriously injuring a third when Christian was 35.
“In your report, you wrote autism spectrum disorder doesn’t happen all of a sudden,” Rees said. “You don’t get it when you turn 30?”
“Correct,” Derning said. He agreed most people are diagnosed between ages 2 and 5 and that when he interviewed Christian’s mother, she told him she noticed nothing abnormal about Christian’s childhood.
Derning tried to explain the lack of observations by Christian’s mother. He suggested she may have said that because she ” didn’t want to be blamed for anything that happened in this case,” Derning testified.
Christian, now 37, is on trial contesting two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree intimidation, a hate crime. Prosecutors contend he targeted two teenage girls on the train — one who is African-American and the other who immigrated from Somalia and was wearing a hijab — before unleashing his stabbing spree.
Christian killed Taliesin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Ricky Best, 53, with knife wounds to the necks. Micah Fletcher, then 21, also stabbed in the neck, narrowly survived.
During questioning by defense attorney Greg Scholl, Derning said there have been many indicators that Christian has autism: He has trouble picking up on body language and other social cues and struggles to properly assess social situations.
Derning said Christian’s parents divorced when Christian was about 6 and he had a dysfunctional home life with his siblings split between his mother’s home and his father’s home two blocks away. Christian’s father didn’t seem to know his son well and couldn’t remember his son’s birthdate, the psychologist said.
One of Christian’s brothers told Derning that Christian as a teenager liked to ride buses in the most dangerous parts of town — “a vigilante who would seek out bullies” with the goal to “kick those bullies’ ass(es),” Derning wrote in his report.
At age 20, Christian robbed a convenience store and was shot in the face by a police officer as he reached for a gun. He was sentenced to 7 u00bd years in prison for first-degree robbery and second-degree kidnapping, according to court records.
“He came out of prison a damaged person,” Derning said.
In his adult life, Christian struggled to have meaningful interactions with others, the psychologist said.
“His peers were people he drank heavily with,” Derning said. “There were no friends he kept from childhood. He really didn’t have friends. He had Facebook friends.”
Derning described Christian as having an atypical case of autism: “What’s interesting about Jeremy is if you have the idea that autistics are in their own little world and they don’t want to come out, he’s 180 degrees the opposite of that.”
Christian seeks out social interactions with loud, one-sided conversations, Derning said.
“Instead he uses a bulldozer and kind of bulldozes you with stuff,” Derning said. “… He tries to dominate the conversation with his point of view.”
Derning said he didn’t diagnose Christian with other conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or antisocial personality disorder.
During cross-examination, he said doesn’t believe autism “fully accounts” for or explains Christian’s behavior on the train.
The prosecution indicated in opening statements two weeks earlier that it is ready to call an expert who will testify that Christian has antisocial personality disorder — “the term for someone who disregards the rights of others, acts impulsively, acts aggressively and lacks remorse,” Rees said.
Also testifying Tuesday was Glena Andrews, a neuropsychologist and professor of clinical psychology at George Fox University in Newberg. Andrews said she determined Christian has slightly slower than normal processing speeds and trouble assessing unfamiliar circumstances.
“He will not see the full picture,” Andrews said.
Prosecutor Jeff Howes was critical of Andrews’ assessments that Christian was cognitively below average in some areas and that could have led him to stab other passengers.
Upon more detailed questioning, Andrews said in many tests Christian scored average or even better than the mean, such as in the 68th percentile of people on a verbal comprehension test. But he did score below average in some tests.
Both psychologists who took the stand agreed that Christian had an IQ ranging from 95 to 98, which is considered average.
Howes noted that Christian earned his GED at age 16 after having previously stopped his schooling in ninth grade. Christian later enrolled in Portland Community College.
Howes asked Andrews if Christian “got all As and a B in a full course load” one term. Andrews answered that he had. Andrews also confirmed that Christian held down a job at Pietro’s Pizza for four years and was able to take public transportation to get around.
In asking follow-up questions, Scholl, the defense attorney, asked if it’s possible for someone to be intelligent but still have cognitive deficits. Scholl brought up the example of Albert Einstein, who is said to have had an IQ of 160 but didn’t drive a car.
Andrews agreed that a highly intelligent person could still have impairments.
