Peter Olmeda voices in his head told him his 3 month old daughter was the anti-Christ

[Sister Iroz]

A Cliffside Park father who grabbed his 3-month-old daughter by the ankle and fatally slammed her head against a stair railing was committed Friday to a psychiatric facility for life.

Peter Olmeda told investigators that “voices in his head were telling him [the baby] was the anti-Christ” when he killed her in front of her mother, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer said.

Olmeda, 31, was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a hearing Friday in Superior Court in Hackensack, after two psychiatrists testified that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia at the time and experienced hallucinations.

Both psychiatrists said Olmeda, who has a long history of mental illness dating back to his 20th birthday, needs to be medicated and must remain in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of his life.

“It was tragic that due to his severe mental illness, his own child wound up being killed,” said Olmeda’s attorney, Brian Neary.
Prosecutors said Olmeda and his girlfriend, Stephanie Avans, had dinner at Olmeda’s home on Sept. 17, 2007. Olmeda’s father later drove Olmeda, Avans and the baby to Avans’ home in Palisades Park. Olmeda’s father stayed in the car while Olmeda and Avans walked toward the house, with Avans holding the baby.

Olmeda then asked if he could hold the baby and, grabbing her by the legs, bashed her head several times against an iron railing as Avans screamed in horror, prosecutors said.

Eye witnesses at first thought Olmeda was swinging some kind of object and did not realize it was an infant, Grootenboer said at the hearing Friday. The witnesses went after Olmeda when he tried to flee and held him until police arrived at the scene, she said.
Police said Olmeda had a knife when he was arrested.

Olmeda told a detective during questioning the next day that he killed the baby because the voices in his head told him to, Grootenboer said. He later attacked the detective during questioning, Grootenboer said.

Olmeda is scheduled to return to court in June for a review of his condition, and will be brought to court twice a year after that.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/0326..._daughter.html

Why can't he be treated for his condition in prison?

[MichaelJCheaney]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/0326..._daughter.html

Why can't he be treated for his condition in prison?

Usually they treat you at a nut house and once they have the right combination of meds, they'll drag his ass back to court and then off to prison.....

[tmdgirl]

Insane or not, this sick bastard needs to have his head bashed in for what he did to this poor little baby.

[CasperGirl]

i hear the voices in my head telling me this man is evil and should die a very slow painful torturous death.

[ImmortalOne]

This is probably the first "Legit" mental health claim I have heard. His mental illness is serious and he is a serious danger to the community. I have a friend that has the same illness and thankfully her family was there to check her in. Usually this is something that will show up later in life also... my friend called me asking me if I was at her house and talking to her on the intercom... she lived in Chicago and I lived in Ohio!!!

Anyhow, this is tragic and what he did was heartbreaking. I can't imagine how the mother is and why she didn't try to stop him instead of just screaming... maybe she couldn't? At least he will never walk out into the community again.

[Silvahalo]

Olmeda then asked if he could hold the baby and, grabbing her by the legs, bashed her head several times against an iron railing as Avans screamed in horror, prosecutors said.

No way this crazy fuck would have walked away alive had this been me in mother's place.

I'm assuming mother was aware of his mental condition and kept alert with him around baby. Curious if she'd seen him acting strange around baby prior to this horrific incident. Seems as the scenario is described, it happened very quickly mom having little to no time to react. Like I said, he'd be a dead man, no doubt.

My deepest sympathies to mother and family......so sorry baby girl, little angel in the heavens.

[Valasca]

A person in prison has the right to refuse mental health care. They cannot force it on him.
Sadly.

[TwiztidAngel]

A person in prison has the right to refuse mental health care. They cannot force it on him.
Sadly.

they can if it's court ordered by a judge

[Marv]

Did the 'voices' also tell him to flee the scene before the police showed up?

[TwiztidAngel]

Did the 'voices' also tell him to flee the scene before the police showed up?

of course! he was fleeing from satan's minions(cops) that was coming after him for killing the anti-christ...duh! lmao

[Whisper]

Psychiatric commitment for NJ man who killed baby
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- A northern New Jersey man who slammed his 3-month-old daughter's head against an iron stair railing, killing her, has been committed to a psychiatric facility for life.
At a hearing Friday in Hackensack, a Superior Court judge found 31-year-old Peter Olmeda of Cliffside Park not guilty by reason of insanity.

Two psychiatrists testified that Olmeda suffered from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the September 2007 attack, which occurred in front of the child's mother. The couple were not married.

Prosecutors say the attack occurred without warning after Olmeda asked his girlfriend if he could hold the baby one last time before he left her family's home.
[...]
Olmeda told investigators that voices in his head told him the baby was the anti-Christ.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...cal&id=7353408

[Marv]

They should pipe whispering voices into his room telling him he is evil and should kill himself in a painful manner.

I wonder how much notice he would take of the 'voices' then.

Olmeda asked his girlfriend if he could hold the baby one last time before he left her family's home.

[Aslan]

I'll believe the 'voices in the head' theory when those voices simply say 'don't take anyone out with you'
Until then...I call bullshit.
Note: he certainly didn't harm himself.

Edit

Olmeda then asked if he could hold the baby and, grabbing her by the legs, bashed her head several times against an iron railing as Avans screamed in horror, prosecutors said.

Oh fuck him. He needs to be in a place where others know what he did.

[Athena]

It appears as though no one in this thread has had the misfortune of dealing with a mentally ill loved one.

I find the inability (or unwillingness) to differentiate between a man who sanely and intentionally kills his child and a man who does so because he is compelled to by something entirely beyond his control a bit disturbing. The former is evil. The latter is hell unlike anything any of us will ever know (i hope, anyway).

I know it's difficult to have any sort of compassion for an individual who kills a child, but there's a difference, here.

[MissKerosene]

It appears as though no one in this thread has had the misfortune of dealing with a mentally ill loved one.

I find the inability (or unwillingness) to differentiate between a man who sanely and intentionally kills his child and a man who does so because he is compelled to by something entirely beyond his control a bit disturbing. The former is evil. The latter is hell unlike anything any of us will ever know (i hope, anyway).

I know it's difficult to have any sort of compassion for an individual who kills a child, but there's a difference, here.

Thank you Athena! I had been reading this thread and following it but held back on commenting for the sheer reasons you stated. As some one who has lived with and cared for a loved one who is truly mentally ill, unable to rationalize or reason in anyway.

I find it shocking how people would put this man into the same category as the man or woman that beats their child to death full well knowing what will happen, and not giving a shit and doing it anyway.

You don't fake schizophrenia. This man will on his clearer days have guilt,remorse and this will more than not worsen his illness to a point of no coming back to reality ever!

It is tragic, and this innocent baby did not deserve to die and I hope the family can get thru this and find some comfort and peace eventually. But I do not believe all things like this can be prevented and I can not believe this man made a choice to do this, his illness took that choice away from him.

[Marv]

It appears as though no one in this thread has had the misfortune of dealing with a mentally ill loved one.

Just to add, my cousin is schizoprhenic. He tried to strangle his mother (my aunt) and that was how he was diagnosed. That was around 40 or so years ago. He has been on medication since then.

He knows he has a problem and takes his meds and has been 'under control' ever since. He lives in sheltered accommodation, but visits us regularly.

[Athena]

Just to add, my cousin is schizoprhenic. He tried to strangle his mother (my aunt) and that was how he was diagnosed. That was around 40 or so years ago. He has been on medication since then.

He knows he has a problem and takes his meds and has been 'under control' ever since. He lives in sheltered accommodation, but visits us regularly.

Yeah...

One schizophrenic person's experience is not every schizophrenic person's experience. I'm glad to hear your counsin is doing okay with his medication, but not everyone is so lucky. As Miss K mentioned, sometimes, the illness leads people to believe they no longer need their medication. In other situations, their medication comes with unbearable side effects, so those with no history of violence think maybe they can deal with the delusions.

Either way, this man did not make a conscious decision knowing that going off his meds would result in the death of his child. The sane, treated mind wouldn't imagine that of oneself.

And, yeah, he asked to hold the baby one more time before leaving. If you were a devout individual and you were convinced that God was telling you that your child would bring an end to mankind if allowed to live, you're thinking one life in exchange for billions of lives, and you're motivated to do whatever you need to do to prevent bloody armageddon. These people are literally unable to differentiate between delusion and reality.

As for why he would run? His wife was flipping out. He had just killed his child (likely a hard decision for him, even in his condition). Him running doesn't make him any more sane.

[Whisper]

Im a nurse in a retirement home,in the summer
(I take it off June to Sept) and work at a psych home a few blocks over from me.
We had a 38 yr old man who was schizoprhenic at the psych home its law they have to take their meds.
Just plain and simple cut and dry theres no choice.
Jeff had a prob with temp when smokes ran out.
So we all bought a pack and had them for end of month when he would start to run out that way all was good.
His family has money and influence in the city and they didnt like the name Psych Home or anything like that.
So they took him out and placed him in a rest home
Rest Home they dont have to take meds,no law governs it there
Well end of the month he was going around asking for smokes
nobody would give him any and he beat and stomped a 68 yr old man to death and was covered in blood by the time cops got there and he sat down and said"I did something bad"
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/st...742ee2&k=86767


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/sto...le-100312.html

I could go on and on but if they dont the meds theres really not much they can control

[Whisper]

xx

[TwiztidAngel]

xx

huh?

[Whisper]

huh?

I posted in the wrong thread
Had to many windows open lol

[AngelFire]

I don't like one bit what this nut job did. But like Athena pointed out, what this man suffers from is a mental illness. Granted what he did is beyond heinous but would he had done it had he been sane? May be, may be not. So while I want to scream, and cuss, I have to take into account that this is a man living his own daily hell. I can not put him in the same category as the many monsters that we read about here, that hurt children just for the shear enjoyment of hurting an innocent life.

[Marv]

1. he had a long history of mental illness, so presumably was on medication to control it but CHOSE to STOP taking it.

2. He had been asked to leave the home, and asked to hold the baby one more time first. Then bashed her head in against a railing.

3. He tried to flee the scene of his crime because he KNEW what he had done, and KNEW it was wrong.

Fuck him.

[MissKerosene]

1. he had a long history of mental illness, so presumably was on medication to control it but CHOSE to STOP taking it.

2. He had been asked to leave the home, and asked to hold the baby one more time first. Then bashed her head in against a railing.

3. He tried to flee the scene of his crime because he KNEW what he had done, and KNEW it was wrong.

Fuck him.

He may have had a long history of mental illness but most people suffering from an extreme mental illness often stop taking their medications because
A.) They believe when on the medication that they are actually well and do not need them.
B.) Their illness tells them the medication is actually the problem and not their illness.
C.) They do not have the support and monitoring they need to help them maintain taking the medications they have been prescribed.

Yes he did do the terrible disgusting crime stated.

But I do not for one second believe he fled the crime scene out of some sense of awareness of the gravity of the situation but because in his mental psychosis he was afraid and what ever the "voices were telling him to do" at that very moment he was listening and hearing them above all other things.

I am sorry but I don't agree with you or the "Fuck you" statement. I for one am the first to stand up and say bullshit when someone is using mental illness as an excuse for a crime they blatantly committed. But the facts stand that this man is truly mentally ill!

One of the reasons most humane societies do not execute the mentally ill is because it is a legitimate ILLNESS! This is not 1886 where we give people lobotomies because they act differently or because they are deaf or mute or artistic. This is a modern society where medicine has enabled humans to properly diagnose true mental illness and in fact even see the actual changes in a schizophrenics brain scan compared to that of a "normal" mentally well person. If anything is to blame it is society for not taking better care of and being overly PC when it comes to treating severe mental illness. This man needed huge amounts of help and didnt receive it obviously.

I hate hate hate that this baby had to lose their precious life. But I also hate the illness of schizophrenia for ravaging peoples minds and destroying their own lives as well as others. Mental Illness is no different from Diabetes when it is not treated it costs lives, like it or not it is reality!

[AngelFire]

Marv, I do understand your rage, believe me it takes all I have to not want to go and take his head off myself. But coming from a person that has seen what mental illness does to a person's reality, I can't condem him anymore than I can condem him for hearing voices. It's an illness, plain and simple. It's not as black and white as most may think. They can suddenly snap back into reality and with the same token go back into that dark place in their minds. My aunt was a crazy woman, and she would suddenly just start talking to you with such clarity, and at other times she would just be no good. She did many things that if you did not know her, you would think she was satan himself. The only reason no one ended up dead was that WE, did not trust her with anything, or anyone for that matter.

I just can't wish death, or torture on this man...I think nature, or genetics already has done that to him. When he snaps back into "reality" he will be his own worst enemy.