Defense Calls Two More Psychiatrists In Hernandez Trial

Expert Testifies He Believes Hernandez Is Schizophrenic

ORLANDO, Fla. – Two more mental health professionals testified Monday in the case of Michael Hernandez.

Testimony continued Monday in the Orlando trial of Hernandez, now 18, who is accused of fatally stabbing classmate Jaime Gough in a restroom at Miami's Southwood Middle School in 2004.

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The judge excused one juror for the remainder of the trial because of an apparent illness. The missing juror should not affect the trial because three alternate jurors have been sitting in since the beginning.

The defense called another expert, forensic psychiatrist Steven Hoge, who helped treat Hernandez. Hoge is the second person to testify that Hernandez is a paranoid schizophrenic.

Hernandez's attorneys are trying to prove he was legally insane at the time he killed Gough.

The court again examined Hernandez's journal during Hoge's testimony.

"He's clearly being, he feels compelled to write things out," Hoge said. "At a certain point, in large capital letters, he's writing, 'Stop writing now.' He can't stop himself from writing the material he's writing about."

The defense also called Dr. Vanessa Archer, a court-appointed psychiatrist, on Monday.

"He knew that he was going to murder Jaime," Archer said. "He knew that this would be frowned upon by society, but in his mind, he did not think it was wrong because this was something that God approved of him doing."

Archer said that Hernandez, once a straight-A student with an impressive IQ, grappled with delusions and obsessive-compulsive disorder around the time of the killing.

However, Archer went against the other experts' theory that Hernandez suffered from schizophrenia.

"I personally can only diagnose what I see, and I didn't see it," she said.

The case could be in the jury's hands by the end of the week.