And based on protection lawyer Sullivan, one thing ended up being really incorrect.

“Nathaniel had been struggling with a significant psychological infection,” stated Sullivan.

“Did it appear to be he had been sliding through your family’s free chat room guatemalan hands?” Smith asked Mattingly.

“that is a good option to describe it,” he responded. “Beth was a tremendously parent that is concerned she constantly have been.”

Keep in mind, Nathaniel’s mom, Beth, had persuaded her son to notice a psychiatrist.

Their diagnosis: ” Major depression that is clinical. In addition to that you’re feelin’ down, but it was a major episode that is depressive” said Sullivan.

The psychiatrist recommended medication that is anti-depression treatment, but in accordance with the protection, Nathaniel declined.

“He ended up being simply types of isolating himself further and further in to the summer time. Lauren had been concerned which he ended up being going to do something drastic to himself,” Chloe explained that he was depressed.

It absolutely was Lauren’s concern for Nathaniel that will bring her towards the Fujita house in the of July 3, 2011 night.

“the important thing minute is inside that garage . What happened at the right period of the killing,” Sullivan told Smith.

At the time of the killing, Sullivan claims, Nathaniel lapsed into a short-term episode that is psychotic prevented him from managing his actions or understanding exactly exactly what he had been doing.

“The protection is Nathaniel had not been criminally accountable at the time of the event,” Sullivan told Smith. “as a result of the most important psychological infection.”

“The defense, I would personally request you to think about, is certainly one of not enough criminal duty,” Sullivan told the court.

Oahu is the insanity protection. Defense expert Dr. Wade Meyers, a psychiatrist, examined Nathaniel after Lauren’s murder.

Bill Sullivan: exactly just What did you be told by him occurred whenever skip Astley arrived during the home?

Wade Meyers: They started to walk towards the storage to talk. He remembered around her neck and began strangling her that he– grabbed this — bungee cord and put it. It had been as however, he said, he had beenn’t managing – himself. It absolutely was his human anatomy acting while their head ended up being — had been disconnected from– from the thing that was occurring.

Meyers states Nathaniel had been nevertheless in an episode that is psychotic he

Repeatedly cut Lauren’s throat and neck:

“Again, explaining — perhaps maybe not in charge of exactly just what he had been doing, but no psychological link with the thing that was taking place,” Dr. Meyers testified.

Closing arguments started on March 5, 2013.

“there is absolutely no preparation involved with this instance. The bungee cable is a tool of possibility, its simply there into the garage . It absolutely was a quick start of this episode that is psychotic” Sullivan addressed the court.

Prosecutor Lisa McGovern zeroes in on Nathaniel’s calculated address up of Lauren’s murder.

“state what you should about fairy god moms; there’s absolutely no psychosis fairy whom magically spread a dose that is temporary of with this defendant,” McGovern told jurors.

“The proof shows, yes, he took the vehicle to the beach. He hid the keys into the drain. . He changed out of their shoes that are bloody another couple of sneakers. . He drives Lauren Astley’s human body into the marsh. It is carried by him 36 foot to the water. He drives home. . He cleans up the garage.

“He was not displaying a symptom that is single of. He had been criminally accountable,” McGovern proceeded. “”Members of this jury, Nathanial Fujita thought we would work . he made a decision to destroy Lauren Astley, along with his intention to destroy and also to murder ended up being manifest . “

“I’m sure this child. . Nathaniel just isn’t someone who could kill,” George Mattingly told Smith. “It is surely got to be mental disease it’s surely got to be something which caused the kid that I knew to — become in the incorrect end of something similar to this.”

Justice for Lauren

The three-week murder trial was excruciating for friends and family of Lauren Astley.

“Testifying had been extremely psychological for you,” Tracy Smith noted to Genevieve Flynn.

“Yeah, it absolutely was terrible. . I desired to state the proper thing to ensure the proper thing took place she replied in tears for her.

It absolutely was in the same way excruciating for Nathaniel’s family on the other hand regarding the courtroom.

“He seemed bewildered. I do not think he knows for this time why the killing of Lauren took destination,” George Mattingly stated of their nephew.

“Our kiddies make errors, also terrible terrible errors, that does not eliminate our caring,” stated Malcolm Astley.

Lauren’s daddy understands you can find complex problems in this situation.