Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Two more expert witnesses testified Monday that Jason Davidson was unaware of the wrongfulness of his actions on May 2, 2002.
Davidson, 33, of Warsaw, is on trial in Kosciusko Circuit Court for the May 2, 2002, shooting death of Samuel Creekmore, 30.
David L. Shapiro, M.D., clinical and forensic psychologist, and Lawrence Shields, M.D., a board certified neurologist, were the final two defense witnesses.
Shapiro testified that Davidson was not in touch with reality at the time of the shooting.
"My opinion is that he was in a dissociative state - what we call a state of altered consciousness."
Shapiro said he performed standardized clinical neurological tests on Davidson that showed an obvious problem in his frontal brain lobes.
The impaired part of Davidson's brain is the area responsible for impulse control, inhibition, aggression, logical thought and many other essential actions.
Defense witness Shields said he also thought Davidson was in an altered state.
"He responded in a disinhibited state. He was in a neural hijack."
According to Shields, a neurologist, neural hijack is when an action message is sent from one part of the brain straight to the action center, bypassing the sections of the brain that cause a person to repress, modify and consider their actions.
"If it had not been for these drugs (Ambien and Zoloft), the neural hijack would not have happened," Shields said.
Shields also noted that because of Davidson's brain injury, he was especially sensitive to neural hijack.
"He's taken at least a triple hit to his ability to control his actions," Shields said, referring to Davidson's brain damage, medication use and stress load.
The defense rested following Shields' testimony. Prosecution witnesses will be called today and final argumetns are expected to follow.
