Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Thomas Sachy of Georgia Pain and Behavorial Medicine gives his testimony in the death penalty case of defendant Reinaldo Rivera in Richmond County Superior Court at the Municipal Building on Tuesday, January 20, 2004. Andrew Davis Tucker/Staff

Judge to rule on theory's viability

Before jurors return today to hear more evidence in Reinaldo Rivera's trial, a judge will determine whether they will hear a psychologist's theory that sexual addiction drove Mr. Rivera to rape and kill women.

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Neuropsychiatrist Thomas Sachy points to an MRI scan of Reinaldo Rivera's brain during Mr. Rivera's trial. Dr. Sachy argues that Mr. Rivera is mentally ill because of a lack of activity in the defendant's orbital frontal lobes. Andrew Davis Tucker/Staff A three-dimensional model of Reinaldo Rivera's brain, created from date gathered in a PET scan, was shown at the trial. Andrew Davis Tucker/Staff

After that testimony - if Judge Albert M. Pickett rules it is relevant to the issue of mental illness - jurors might hear from Mr. Rivera himself.

"I think he would like to be understood," attorney Peter Johnson said of his client. But neither Mr. Johnson nor co-counsel Jacque Hawk would say Tuesday whether Mr. Rivera will testify.

Jurors heard Tuesday from neuropsychiatrist Dr. Thomas Sachy, who said he believes Mr. Rivera is mentally ill and that medical tests prove a brain abnormality diminishes his responsibility in the alleged rapes of five women and the deaths of four of them.

This month in Richmond County Superior Court, Mr. Rivera is facing the first of four possible death penalty trials. Although he has pleaded innocent in Richmond County to 14 charges, including murder in the strangulation death of Army Sgt. Marni Glista, Mr. Rivera's attorneys have conceded his guilt. They want jurors to return a verdict of guilty but mentally ill.

Dr. Sachy testified he believes Mr. Rivera is mentally ill. On cross-examination, however, he admitted that Mr. Rivera's diagnosed condition of psychopathic sexual sadist isn't a legally recognized mental illness.

If jurors find Mr. Rivera guilty but mentally ill or just guilty, the trial will proceed into a second phase with more testimony. Jurors would then decide on punishment for murder - life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, or death.

In Richmond County, Mr. Rivera is accused of murder in the death of Sgt. Glista, 21, who died in September 2000, and of sexually assaulting her and two other women.

He is also accused of murder in Columbia County, where the remains of 17-year-old Tabitha Bosdell were found.

In Aiken County, Mr. Rivera is accused of sexual assault and murder in the deaths of Melissa Dingess and Tiffaney Wilson, each of whom was 17 years old when she disappeared in 1999.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Wednesday, January 21, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle