A forensic psychologist testified Thursday that tests she conducted and documents she reviewed led her to believe Daniel Dion was insane at the time authorities say he stabbed and critically wounded a Vernon Hills woman in January 2015.
Dr. Karen Chantry, testifying for the defense in Dion’s trial in Lake County Circuit Court, said she believed he suffered from schizophrenia or a similar paranoid delusional disorder and that his mental state during the attack met “the criteria of not guilty by reason of insanity.”
Dion, 20, is charged with attempted first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated battery for allegedly stabbing the 24-year-old woman, his date that evening, more than 20 times in a car outside of the Century Theater in Deer Park on Jan. 8, 2015.
He has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
During questioning by defense attorney Ian Kasper on Thursday morning, the third day of testimony in Dion’s jury trial, Chantry said she had interviewed Dion in Lake County Jail several times in the months after his arrest, for a total of at least 15 hours.
Chantry said Dion said he heard a voice that told him to harm those who were “getting close to him” and that the voice had told him to harm and then kill the victim.
Kasper asked whether police reports and video recordings that showed Dion screaming “he made me do it” at the time of his arrest that night were consistent with what he had told her during interviews about voices and hallucinations, and she responded that they were.
Chantry also said that while Dion “may have” lied to her at times during the interviews, “I don’t think he lied about that.”
Chantry said she reviewed documents from Lutheran General Hospital in which family members mentioned previous episodes of aggression from Dion, including an incident in which he chased his mother with a knife and a separate instance in which a knife was found in his backpack in school.
She said tests she conducted with Dion during the interviews included measurements of intelligence, aggressiveness and anger issues. She said hospital diagnoses previous to the attack had found Dion experienced depression.
Chantry said symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents often first seem similar to depression but that symptoms worsen in late teen years to include aggression, delusions and hallucinations.
Prosecutors were scheduled to cross-examine Chantry on Thursday afternoon, and Judge Daniel Shanes said he expected the case to go to the jury for deliberations Friday.
Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Kalcheim Rothenberg said in pretrial hearings that a phone recording made in Lake County Jail captured Dion telling family members he was “pretending” to be mentally ill because he preferred a mental hospital to prison.
The victim, who testified she had a dating relationship with Dion while they were co-workers at a Deer Park business, said the two had decided to see a movie after work the night of the attack.
She testified the two were inside her car outside the theater when Dion began kissing her aggressively and then grabbed a knife and stabbed her repeatedly as she tried to escape the car. She eventually got out of the car and made it to the theater lobby before collapsing and being rescued by police and paramedics.
Dion, who has been held in Lake County Jail without bail since his arrest the night of the attack, faces a mandatory sentencing range of 6 to 30 years in prison if found guilty by the jury.
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