Man who stabbed mother to death allowed trips from mental hospital

Three years after he stabbed his mother to death, Nathan DeGeare is well enough to take supervised field trips from the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, a judge ruled Monday.

DeGeare, 30, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the April 30, 2005, stabbing death of Mary "Gwen" DeGeare. The 60-year-old former Opera Guild president was found in the bedroom of her Sanford Road home, west of the Broadmoor Golf Course. She bled to death after being stabbed several times in the chest and back.

After hearing from a hospital psychiatrist who has been treating DeGeare, 4th Judicial District Judge David Prince approved the request to allow DeGeare off hospital grounds.
A hospital official will be required to accompany him on trips to go shopping, to baseball games or other field-trip-type activities.

Prince's decision came over objections of Chief Deputy District Attorney Gail Warkentin, who was concerned about DeGeare's violent attack on his mother.

"I don't want to minimize the progress he's made, it's been remarkable, but the people and the courts must think about public safety," Warkentin said. "I'm thinking of Mary DeGeare. The request for this privilege is a bit premature."

Susan Middleton of the hospital's Community Reintegration Unit said DeGeare is being housed in the "least restrictive area" of the hospital where there's no fences, and he remains unsupervised for up to four hours at a time.

She testified he's been diagnosed as bipolar and is on antipsychotic medications. DeGeare has taken most of the required classes, participates in therapy, has been taking online college classes and composes music, she said.

Although at one point DeGeare told police he only dreamed about killing his mother, he's learned to take responsibility, Middleton said.
Around the anniversary of his mother's homicide, DeGeare gets depressed and anxious, she said.

"He has remorse and horror about what he had done," Middleton testified.
DeGeare's father, Dan DeGeare, supported the request.

"I've been impressed with the progress he's made," said Dan DeGeare, who was divorced from Mary DeGeare when she was killed. "There's a greatly dramatic improvement in his personality."

DeGeare himself spoke to Prince about the power of music, how it's helped heal him, and how he wants to write songs to help others.

"I want to write songs that are truly inspirational to make amends for what I've done," said DeGeare, a Dartmouth-educated engineer who graduated from Cheyenne Mountain High School.

His court-appointed attorney, Bill Martinez, said the off-site visits will help in his rehabilitation and DeGeare has not been violent "whatsoever" in two years of treatment.
"He needs to be able to encounter other people in the real world," Martinez said. Citing DeGeare's "strong record of stability," Prince agreed to the request.

To address public safety concerns, Prince set several ground rules for DeGeare:

• He can't leave the hospital within three weeks of the anniversary of his mother's homicide.
• He can't take overnight trips.
• He can take a maximum of three to four trips a week, not daily.
• He can't get a job.
• Rule violations will result in the privilege being revoked.

DeGeare will stay at the mental hospital until doctors determine, and a judge agrees, he is well enough to re-enter society.