Jury Says Michael Carreiro Was Sane When He Stabbed Mom to Death

A Butler County jury finds a man was not legally insane when he killed his mother six years ago. Jurors convicted Michael Carreiro aggravated murder this afternoon.


Carreiro stabbed his adoptive mother, Christine Minnix, to death inside his apartment in 2005. He was found competent to stand trial just recently, after years of therapy and medication. In opening statements Assistant Prosecutor John Heinkel said Carrerio admitted in a taped interview with police that he understood he was guilty and would be punished. Prosecutors claim Carreiro hunted down his mother with the intent to kill her. He also washed up after the murder.


All five mental health professionals who testified this week at the murder trial in Butler County agree Carreiro has a severe mental disease; two say he is a paranoid schizophrenic and three say he suffers from a schizoaffective disorder. But, Forensic psychologist David Chiappone disagree with two defense psychologists who say he didn’t know right from wrong when he killed his mother, Christine Minnix, a popular Middletown teacher, six years ago.
Chiappone, who examined Carreiro first to determine if he was competent to stand trial in 2005 and again last summer to determine if 31-year-old was legally insane, was serving as a “friend of the court” and wasn’t working for either side in the case.
He said Carreiro was definitely unable to stand trial after he killed his mother but could be “restored” in a year. He said Carreiro, who has been at Summit Behavioral Healthcare for six years, is a paranoid schizophrenic, but he knew the wrongfulness of his actions. Carreiro placed the knife on the kitchen counter in preparation of the murder, he lured his mother to his Middletown apartment, removed his bloody shirt and washed his hands and then left the scene to sleep in a field near Meijer. All actions that constitute a planned attack and an attempt to avoid punishment, he said.
Carreiro claims God commanded him to kill his mother.
Chiappone said Carreiro told him the voices didn’t tell him to place the knife out or lure his mother. When defense attorney Mike Shanks cross-examined Chiappone, he said there are a whole host of reasons why he declared Carreiro sane at the time of the crime.
“It’s not about the hands and the shirt, it’s more than that,” he said. “There’s a lot of different things he explained to me that, even though he is severely impaired, he had behaviors and actions that speak to the fact he knew wrong from right. It’s two different aspects if you will, and sometimes it’s hard to appreciate that you can be mentally ill but not necessarily insane.”
Kristin Haskins, a forensic psychologist who testified for the defense, pointed to other factors, like his interview with the Middletown police, that suggest Carreiro had no idea what he did was wrong.
“He was totally void of any kind of self-protectiveness. Usually when people get caught and they’ve done something they’re cautious, they don’t tell you everything” she said. “He goes in and laid out what had happened, what he did and why. Clearly from the very beginning he felt he had done something that he had to do and clearly it was the right thing, God had commanded it and He is the supreme power and the rule and commands of God trump any kind of law.”
Carreiro has appeared very detached, almost dazed throughout the proceedings, but Wedensday during a break he chatted amiably with his grandmother and some of his mother’s friends.