By Guy Leonard, County Times
HOLLYWOOD, Md. (Dec. 4, 2008)—William Trainor, the man accused of nearly strangling his wife to death in Leonardtown more than a year ago, has pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, avoiding a trial that would have put him at risk for serving a sentence for attempted murder.
Trainor’s attorney, Public Defender John Getz said that an expert psychiatric report on his client’s mental status at the time of the crime showed that Trainor was competent to stand trial but was not criminally responsible.
“It was a combination of severe depression and brain impairment,” Getz said of his client’s mental state laid out in the report from Dr. Neil Blumberg of the state’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
In lieu of prison Trainor has been committed to the custody of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene under the rules of criminal procedure.
According to police reports Trainor, 70, had called county emergency management personnel Aug. 13 of last year and told them he had just strangled his wife.
When they arrived emergency responders found Trainor’s wife, also 70 years old at the time, incapacitated but alive at the family home.
She was taken to a trauma center for treatment and Trainor was charged with attempted murder as well as first-degree assault and second-degree assault.
At the time detectives working the case said that Trainor had planned to first kill his wife and then himself.
More than a year passed as Trainor underwent psychiatric evaluations that eventually showed that he was not criminally responsible for the actions against his wife.
“The state agreed he was not responsible,” Getz told The County Times Tuesday.
According to Getz, referring to the information gathered during the evaluation, Trainor had long suffered a stressful home life.
“This ensures that he won’t go back to an environment that contributed to his actions,” Getz said of his client’s plea deal Tuesday. “He was stressed financially and he had a significant history of mental health treatment.”