Pittsburgh synagogue shooter currently ‘incapable’ of remorse, defense witness says

• Julia Zenkevich/WESA
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  Julia Zenkevich is a general assignment reporter for 90.5 WESA. She first joined the station as a production assistant on The Confluence, and more recently served as a fill-in producer for The Confluence and Morning Edition. She’s a life-long Pittsburgher, and attended the University of Pittsburgh. She can be reached at jzenkevich@wesa.fm.

The man convicted of killing 11 Jewish worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 is mentally ill, a defense witness testified Thursday and Friday, but he goes to considerable lengths to hide it.

The same jury that found defendant Robert Bowers guilty of 63 federal charges, including murder and hate crimes, is now hearing testimony meant to help them decide if Bowers should receive the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of release.

Defense lawyers hope the testimony and other mitigating evidence might persuade jurors to reject a death sentence.

Psychiatrist Dr. George Corvin spent 10 days and more than 38 hours interviewing Bowers. Corvin diagnosed Bowers with schizophrenia, as did two other defense experts before him – though they all came to their diagnoses differently.

Over two days of questioning by defense lawyers, Corvin criticized prosecution witnesses who challenged Bowers’ delusions. Corvin said that if a person challenged Bowers’ extremist beliefs about Jewish people or his idea that the salt packets he’s given at Butler County Prison, where he’s currently being held, have improved his intelligence and ability to concentrate, Bowers would pull back and distance himself from those thoughts.

Bowers was confident he convinced prosecution expert witness Dr. Park Dietz he wasn’t “kooky,” Corvin said. Dietz said Bowers does not have schizophrenia and instead diagnosed him with schizoid personality disorder.

Bowers told Dietz about the salt packets and red dye from his prison jumpsuit, which he believed was leaking into his bloodstream and collecting in his wrist band. But when Bowers realized Dietz didn’t believe what he was saying, he downplayed what Corvin described as delusions.

Corvin said that while Bowers began showing what could have been symptoms of schizophrenia during his adolescence, his delusions about Jewish people and their role in what he believed to be an imminent apocalypse came later. Bowers’ antisemitic beliefs developed rapidly after two major events rocked his personal life: the death of his grandfather, whom Bowers lived with, in 2014 and his best friend’s death from an overdose in 2016.

Bowers had heard antisemitic stereotypes throughout his life but told Corvin he “put them on the backburner” until about 2017, after he left his job and had time to do “research.” Bowers had increasingly become convinced that the end of the world, including the destruction of the United States, would happen within the next few years, Corvin told the jury. Bowers then incorporated antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes that he read online into his beliefs.

Satan wants to destroy Christianity so he can ultimately destroy the world, Bowers told Corvin. Bowers described himself as a “foot soldier for God” with a mission to help stop Satan.

“This is the result of a mental illness. He thinks he’s saving lives,” Corvin said. As recently as June, Bowers said he still held those beliefs.

“He would be willing to do it again if God calls him to do so.”

According to Corvin, Bowers is currently incapable of understanding that what he did is wrong and cannot express remorse due to his mental illness. He suggested that Bowers should be prescribed antipsychotic medication. That would help his antisemitic beliefs “fade into the background” and lessen his preoccupation with them.

Corvin said it would also make him realize that he murdered 11 innocent people.

U.S. attorney Eric Olshan pointed out that Bowers holds the same white supremacist beliefs held by many racists throughout the country.

Though some of Bowers’ beliefs are common in white supremacist subcultures, the way he puts them together is “patently delusional,” Corvin testified. It’s not the antisemitic or apocalyptic beliefs that convinced Corvin that Bowers has schizophrenia, but the way he came to hold those beliefs, Corvin said.

On cross examination, Corvin relayed many details of the attack that Bowers had told him, including his plans in the leadup and how he moved through the building during the attack.

As he did with other defense expert witnesses, Bowers told Corvin that he wished he had killed more people in the attack. Bowers also said he wanted his case to go to trial so people would hear about what he did.

Bowers’ aunt, Patricia Fine, testified later in the day. She told the jury that Bowers was a quiet, sad and withdrawn child.

“He didn’t have joy.”

“He never wanted to be or would put himself in a spotlight position where he would be the center of attention,” Fine said, adding that he would sit under chairs, not on them, and would sometimes hide under end tables or cover himself with a blanket.

Fine, who is only 14 years older than Bowers, didn’t know then that those could be signs of mental illness, she said.

Fine detailed her family’s mental health and substance use problems and Bowers’ tumultuous home life as a child; he and his mother experienced housing and food instability. Bowers would come home from elementary school and not know if the lights or heat would be on, she said.

When Bowers was 10, Fine became “convinced” that Bowers would die by suicide.

“You can have a kid that’s sad. This was so much deeper than a child who is sad because his home life is really bad,” she said.

Fine’s husband, Clyde Munger, testified just before her. Munger said that though Bowers was “more or less a loner,” the two would often go to Golden Corral together. Bowers liked the chocolate fountain, and was “frustrated” when the restaurant got rid of it.

At the end of one of Munger’s recent trips to see Bowers in prison, Bowers put his hand through an opening so Munger could hold it.

“I held his hand and said we love him and we’re praying for him,” Munger said. “I pray for him always, every day and every morning.”

Fine is expected to finish her testimony on Monday. Closing arguments could begin as soon as Monday afternoon, after which the jury will begin deliberations.