By Idil Abshir
A psychiatrist testifying for the defense in the trial of a teenager accused of stabbing her cousin to death told jurors yesterday the defendant suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and wasn’t in control of her actions at the time of the crime.
Prosecutors argue that Tiana Browne, 17, was motivated by jealousy when she allegedly stabbed her cousin over 30 times in September 2008.
But yesterday Dr. Richard G. Dudley Jr. testified that his interviews with Browne and the various records and testimonies he read were consistent with a PTSD diagnosis, which developed after Browne was allegedly raped on four separate occasions beginning in 2006. Dudley said because of her PTSD, Browne suffered from dissociative episodes where her vision would go black, and she would experience the thoughts and feelings that she had at the times of the rapes. He said from their interviews, and medical records, he believes she had such an experience at the time of the murder.
But during cross-examination, the prosecuting attorney, Mark Hale, played the emergency 911 call that Browne made, and in this it was revealed that Browne lied to the police officers.
“Someone came into the house,” she said on the tape, crying. “He killed my cousin and slashed my face.” She went on to say that a man named Yusef had committed the crime. In another part of the tape she said “Yusef made me hold the knife.”
Defense attorney, Douglas Rankin, said that the arresting officer was unable to find anybody by the name of Yusef, and that this was yet another example of how there are no definitive answers about the state of Browne’s mental health.
Hale asked Dudley if it was possible the tape lies reflected “a conscious effort to shift blame.”
Dudley responded “it’s possible,” but he maintained that it was more reflective of her confusion.
Throughout the day’s proceedings, Browne sat with her face in her hands, only briefly looking around. During the broadcast of the 911 tape, she buried he face in her hands, and put her thumbs in her ears.
After her arrest, Browne told the police that she and the victim, Shannon Braithwaite, had been messaging people when Braithwaite got upset because she thought Browne was looking at her messages. She then said that they both “got an attitude,” and Braithwaite got a bat to attack her with. Browne said she then ran to the kitchen and got a knife, at which point everything went black. Browne said she had stabbed without any knowledge of what she was doing. Dudley said this was consistent with her descriptions of her dissociative episodes, and with the diagnosis of PTSD.
“She was unable to control her behavior,” he said. “She didn’t really know what she was doing at the time.”
Hale then asked if Dudley was aware that in fact there was no bat. Dudley said he was, but that although there was no bat, Browne felt under attack, and this was still in line with PTSD.
“Her perception of threat may not have been reality,” he said. “But that doesn’t change my opinion. I think what’s critical is her reality.”
According to statements about the incident, Browne said she didn’t snap out of the episode until she heard Shannon say, “Tiana, stop! I love you.”
Hale asked if this was a statement that was supposed to gain sympathy on Browne’s part, because some of Braithwaite’s stab wounds were in the lungs and throat making a statement like this impossible. Dudley maintained that this was real in Browne’s mind.
“It could be a misperception, it could be a hallucination. It could be a wish.”
Hale argued that Browne’s possession of Braithwaite’s designer sneakers, MP3, and camera lent themselves to the conclusion that Browne was in fully conscious of what she was doing, and that this demonstrated that she was in fact motivated to kill Braithwaite, rather than this being the result of a dissociative episode.
In a phone interview, Rankin argued that he simply doesn’t believe this was possible. “No one does something that grave and that depraved over a pair of sneakers.”
Rankin maintains that Browne needs institutional care. “Jail is not going to help her,” he said. “It is only going to make her worse.”
Hale today is expected to call upon a psychiatrist to argue that a PTSD defense does not apply to Browne. A verdict is expected next week.
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