DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt presided over testimony from a homicide defendant and clinical psychologists claiming the suspect has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a trial on April 30.
Spiro Stafilatos, 35, is charged with second-degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and fleeing a law enforcement officer for his alleged involvement in a fatal car accident on December 30, 2022 at the intersection of 14th Street and New York Avenue, NW. The incident caused the death of 31-year-old Shuyu Sui, and critically injured another pedestrian.
Brian McDaniel, the defense attorney, called Stalilatos to testify on his own behalf.
He began by acknowledging his prior convictions for robbery, reckless driving, unauthorized use of a vehicle, violation of a protective order, and carrying a firearm. Stafilatos testified that in April 2020, while serving time in Maryland’s Montgomery County Jail, correctional officers assaulted him, leaving him with a broken nose, two broken eye sockets, and a broken cheekbone. He said that these events triggered PTSD around police officers and brain damage requiring medical treatment.
Stafilatos testified that on the day of the incident, he took his mother’s car without her knowledge to pick up her heart medication and dropped off a female friend at work. The vehicle was apparently without a front license tage and missing a registration sticker on the back plate. He said the sight of an officer dismounting a bike triggered his PTSD, and that he stepped on the accelerator for fear of being shot when the officer reached toward him three times. He maintained he did not see pedestrians on the crosswalk, did not intend to harm anyone, and consumed a full bottle of Klonopin, a medication used to treat panic disorders, to kill himself after realizing someone was hurt.
On cross-examination, the prosecution focused on Stafilatos’ alleged use of cocaine before the incident. Stafilatos maintained that he did not have any cocaine the day of the incident, and that anything in his system was left over from prior use.
Stafilatos said he could not recall how much cocaine he had used, attributing memory loss to the police damaging his brain. He said he did not remember where he picked up the woman, where she lived, or where he picked up the car.
McDaniel also called a clinical neuropsychologist and associate professor, who testified that the defendant met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD with the April 2020 assault as the source of trauma. The expert said PTSD causes fear-driven parts of the brain to run unchecked, which allegedly distorted Stafilatos’ sense of reality and made him act impulsively in the moment and causing him to flee law enforcement.
On cross-examination, the expert acknowledged he could not rule out a motive to escape or cocaine use as other potential factors. The prosecution noted that the expert did not know if Stafilatos was on medications at the times that the witness met with Stafilatos during his original diagnosis. The expert responded that he was judging Stafilatos’ behavior as a study of probabilities, and that the pattern of symptoms made it highly probable PTSD was at play.
The prosecution then called its own clinical psychologist, who concurred that the defendant met PTSD diagnostic criteria, but characterized his behavior after the crash as “goal-directed.” She testified that bodyworn camera footage from the ambulance did not show the defendant appearing fearful of police, and assuming his PTSD was triggered, it would not have caused him to flee as he did. The expert said she could not rule out cocaine use as an alternative explanation.
On cross-examination, the expert agreed PTSD can cloud judgment and contribute to decision-making. McDaniel mentioned that her own reports after meeting with Stafilatos stated the relevant factors could have been reasonably caused by PTSD. She agreed with the defense expert that the source of the defendant’s PTSD was the April 2020 assault.
Parties are slated to reconvene on May 4.
