Student’s murderer not guilty by reason of insanity

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(JTA) — A Massachusetts man was found not guilty by reason of insanity for killing a Jewish Wesleyan University student.

On Friday, a three-judge panel in Connecticut ordered a psychiatric report of Stephen Morgan, 32, who will be committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane in Connecticut. Morgan allegedly also targeted other Jewish students. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Morgan was charged with murder and other crimes in the killing of Johanna Justin-Jinich in May 2009 in a bookstore where she worked in Middletown, Conn. They knew each other from a New York University summer course they took in 2007.

Police reportedly found a laptop and diaries in Morgan’s vehicle detailing his obsession with Justin-Jinich and with Jews. Police also found a copy of the anti-Semitic “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in Morgan’s motel room.

Jewish services in the area of the Middletown university shut down while Morgan was on the loose.

 

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