WINNSBORO – A Sixth Circuit Court judge granted a motion by the defense Monday afternoon to require a psychological evaluation by the State Department of Mental Health for Matthew Richard Mahorsky, the 40-year-old Blair man charged with the April 7 murder of his parents. The evaluation will determine if Mahorsky will be deemed competent to stand trial.
“Mr. Mahorsky has an extensive mental health history,” Mike Lifsey, the public defender representing Mahorsky, told Judge Brooks P. Goldsmith. “It is my understanding he is also on several medications, including ziprasidone, which is used to treat bipolar disorder, along with a couple other anti-psychotic medications. I will also tell you that there were statements made at the time of his arrest that give issue there as to his competency to stand trial.”
Ziprasidone is an anti-psychotic medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the U.S. in 2001. It is approved for the treatment of schizophrenia and acute mania, as well as symptoms associated with bipolar disorder. It is also used for mood disorders, anxiety, aggression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other illnesses.
Goldsmith granted the motion with no objection from the prosecution. Lifsey said results from the evaluation would not be complete for at least a month or more. If Mahorsky is deemed competent to stand trial, the evaluation will also determine if Mahorsky has the right to an insanity defense.
Mahorsky was officially charged with two counts of murder and one count of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime on April 9, a day after he had surrendered without incident to investigators at his Blair home on Highway 215 S. and one day after the bodies of his parents, Ruth Marion Mahorsky, 70, and Richard F. Mahorsky, 71, were found shot to death outside the home.
The bodies were discovered on the morning of April 8 in the driveway of the home during a security check after Marion Mahorsky failed to show up for work at Provident Bank in Winnsboro. Both victims had been shot through the head with a high-powered rifle, the Sheriff’s Office said. Several weapons, including a high-powered rifle, were recovered from the home.
The Sheriff’s Office had been on the scene only a short time before Matthew Mahorsky exited the home through the garage and surrendered. He was held for questioning as a person of interest for approximately 24 hours before being charged. Chief Deputy Keith Lewis said Matthew Mahorsky made several comments during questioning that led to the charges, including telling investigators where they could find the suspected murder weapon, a Remington model 700 .308.
Matthew Mahorsky was previously arrested on a pointing and presenting a firearm charge following an altercation with his father in 2004. During that incident, Lewis said, Mahorsky pointed a handgun at his father’s head and threatened to kill him before his mother managed to calm him down. When deputies responded to that incident, Lewis said, they were told then that Matthew had a history of mental illness. He received a one-year suspended sentence with three years’ probation in the 2004 incident.
Lewis said there was no evidence that Matthew Mahorsky was using alcohol at the time of the shooting, but a bottle of prescription medication, used to treat schizophrenia and bearing Matthew Mahorsky’s name, was recovered from the home.
