I don’t have time for much commentary on this right now (it’s the holidays, dontcha know), but I wanted to post it. From today’s Charleston Daily Mail:
The second felony stemmed from the hate-filled letter police say McCoy left on the door of his upstairs neighbor in an apartment building on Market Street in Spencer. McCoy was living in an apartment with his mother at the time, police said.
“It was threatening, very threatening,” Spencer Police Chief Gary Williams said. “It put the victim at great fear … When they brought this letter over here, we were just astounded by the content. We jumped on it immediately.”
A person familiar with McCoy matched his handwriting with that on the letter sent to his neighbor, Williams said.
The investigation into the letter included interviews and statements from family members, Cole said. These statements eventually led to McCoy’s arrest for the cat mutilation, police said.
Spencer police consulted with the state Attorney General’s office on filing the hate crime charge, Williams said. The chief said he believed McCoy’s was only the second successful prosecution of a hate crime in state history.
The guy pled guilty to the hate crime charge. I’m curious what “consulted with the state Attorney General’s office” means exactly.
The McCoy guy is diagnosed bipolar and paranoid schitzophrenic. So he’s completely mentally ill. Yet they process him just like he were any other common criminal. He’s been in JAIL for a year already, mostly in solitary confinement. What he REALLY NEEDS is to be in a mental hospital! This court case is simply for show to try to make the police and the court look good. But actually, it just makes them look BAD. Prosecuting the mentally ill is common practice in WV. But these people are ILL and as such no different than someone with cancer or diabetes. It is a CRIME what they do to mentally ill people in this state!