Health experts back plea for Hribal

A decision to allow a teenager to plead guilty but mentally ill for the attempted murder of 20 fellow students and a security guard at Franklin Regional High School could come early next year.

Four mental health experts testified last week that Alex Hribal suffered from a mental illness when he used two kitchen knives to slash and stab his way down a school hallway April 9, 2014.

Hribal, 19, sat quietly in a blue prison jumpsuit as he listened to defense experts describe him as depressed, schizophrenic and psychotic.

Psychiatrist Bruce Wright, a prosecution witness, testified that though the Murrysville teen was mentally ill, his mental state did not cause him to break the law.

“He knew what he was doing was wrong,” Wright testified. “He had the capacity to know right from wrong, and he had the capacity to conform to the law.”

Hribal has been in jail since his arrest. Defense attorney Pat Thomassey is attempting to have his client, who was 16 at the time of the attack, plead guilty but mentally ill to all 43 counts he faces.

Thomassey said Hribal’s case will go to trial if Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani rejects the guilty plea.

District Attorney John Peck has argued that Hribal was not sick enough to warrant such a finding. Peck repeatedly questioned doctors about Hribal’s intent based on a handwritten manifesto the teen wrote, explaining his actions were to honor the attackers from the deadly 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

That five-page letter, found in Hribal’s locker the day of the attack, was dated three days earlier and mentioned heaven and hell, the Columbine shooters, Julius Caesar and other references. In it, Hribal talked about the “monstrosity” he planned to commit.

“I can’t wait to see the priceless and helpless looks on the faces of the students of one of the ‘best schools in Pennsylvania’ realize their precious lives are going to be taken by the only one among them that isn’t a plebeian,” or commoner, Hribal wrote.

Peck said the teen described his desire to kill classmates and suggested that his writing was evidence of a clear understanding that a crime was to be committed.

Defense experts said Hribal was suicidal and wanted to die in the knife rampage that left several students severely wounded.

“He was looking for a way to commit indirect suicide,” testified psychiatrist Christine Martone.

Psychologist Alan Axelson testified Hribal had been suicidal since the fourth grade and that his mental illness intensified when he entered high school a year before the attack.

“At the time of the incident, Alex Hribal was under control of psychotic thinking, but he was not insane. He was mentally not really able to appreciate his actions on others,” Axelson said.

It was Hribal’s mental state at the time of the rampage that ultimately will determine whether he is permitted to plead guilty but mentally ill.

Should the judge agree to accept the plea, Hribal’s sentence is likely to include treatment in a mental health facility and time in prison. Peck has said Hribal faces up to 840 years in prison should the judge impose maximum consecutive sentences for each charge.

Feliciani did not rule immediately.

“I will try to make a prompt decision after getting the written arguments from the attorneys,” the judge said.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.