Next week, White Pine District Judge Steve Dobrescu will rule on the latest twist in the Michael “Big Time” Ofeldt murder case, whether Big Time Ofeldt can fire his attorney Charles Odgers and instead represent himself.
Accused of the 2011 murder of his cellmate Erik “Bingo” Hauser, Ofledt has never denied the killing but instead has insisted he was acting in self defense.
click for Ofeldt motion:
Over the past two years Odgers has laid at least a preliminary case of self defense and according to more than a few pieces of correspondence between prison officials and the White Pine County Sheriff’s office they may have enough to raise at least a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors.
Documents obtained by the Advocate at least suggest that both investigators from the prison and the White Pine County Sheriff’s Department did not dismiss that angle out of hand.
According to those and other documents Ofeldt was fingered for killing to seal a truce between two white prison gangs the Aryan Warriors and the Skin Heads. Ofeldt, the correspondence suggested, was accused of being a snitch by the Aryan Warriors and Houser was picked for the job.
In doing so Odgers according to some observers has turned an open and shut murder case into something that just might lead a jury to consider reasonable doubt.
Odgers is not a stranger to pulling a legal rabbit out of a hat. One of the most successful public defenders in Nevada history, the Ely based attorney has won acquittal after acquittal in a variety of cases where most PD’s would seek a plea bargain.
While Ofeldt makes no claims against Odgers in his hand written motion to represent himself, the Advocate has learned that another line of defense Odgers was exploring may have angered the convict.
From the day he arrived in 2004 Ofeldt has apparently been at war with Ely State Prison waged against both staff and fellow inmates alike. According to his prison disciplinary report, Ofeldt has spent almost half his so far nine years in prison under one form of discipline or another and close to four years in solitary confinement otherwise know as disciplinary segregation.
Most of the infractions Ofeldt was punished for were violent from fighting, assaults on other inmates to assaults on guards. His longest stretch in solitary began on October 31, 2009 and ended shortly before he killed cell mate Hauser in May 2011.
That long stretch in isolation could also play a role in his defense.
Last year, Judge Dan Papez found the potential of violence so great that he granted the prosecution motion that Ofeldt wear a stun belt during his upcoming trial.
Ofeldt was recently examined by Dr. John Matthew Fabian PSY.D., J.D., ABPP. According to his website. Dr. Fabian is one of a few national expert witnesses who is both board certified in Forensic and Clinical Psychology, and Fellowship Trained in Clinical Neuropsychology.
In a phone interview Tuesday with the High Desert Advocate Fabian said he was asked to evaluate whether or not Ofeldt may have felt his life was threatened when the inmate killed Hauser.
While Fabian declined to tell his conclusion, the fact of his report still to be completed prompted the prosecution to agree to a defense request to continue the trial now set for April 2014.
While Fabian did not mention whether Ofeldt long periods of isolation could form a part of an insanity defense, the months if not years he spent in solitary would certainly figure on his state of mind.
The effect of solitary confinement on mental health has been studied and discussed by psychiatrists since the 1930s. According to psychiatrist Stuart Grassian, a specialist in the area, inmates are more likely to under-report than to over-report its effects (i.e., “Some of the guys can’t take it—not me”).
Given his long record of standing alone Ofeldt may have felt that implying he was not mentally healthy at the time of the killing was somehow demeaning. And if denying it means a trip to death row then so be it.