Goulart to enter state mental facility

A Daleville man charged with murdering his brother will be sent to a state mental facility for six months to a year following a forensic psychologist’s recommendation.

Thomas Goulart was arrested Nov. 24, 2018, in Daleville in connection with the shooting death on Richardson Drive of his brother Chris, 52, earlier that evening.

Following his initial hearing on Nov. 26, 2018, Dale County District Judge Stan Garner set Goulart’s bond at $300,000 after considering him a flight risk. Goulart is represented by David Harrison.

Later, Circuit Judge Kimberly Clark approved a request from Harrison for Goulart to receive a mental evaluation. Forensic psychologist Dr. Michael T. D'Errico conducted the evaluation based on two requests: to determine if Goulart could withstand trial and his mental state on Nov. 24.

“I filed a motion for a mental evaluation with the court,” Harrison said. “There were two things that we were asking (the psychologist) to determine. The first things is, we asked him to determine whether or not (Goulart) was capable of standing trial. In Alabama, to stand trial, you’ve got to be able to assist your lawyer in your defense. You have to know what you’re indicted for; you have to know the procedure of the court.”

Harrison and Thirty-third Judicial Circuit District Attorney Kirke Adams both said they agreed to follow the recommendation of D’Errico to send Goulart to the Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility in Tuscaloosa to be treated and evaluated daily. D’Errico’s recommendation was to send Goulart to the facility for six months to a year.

“Once that’s finished, it’s typical that he would be either re-evaluated or the doctors that are with him daily may have an opinion after they observe him as opposed to the original doctor who spent a couple of hours with him,” Adams said.

“(We agreed) to send him to Taylor Harden facility… for six months to a year, see if they can treat him and get him to a point to where he can assist his lawyers in his defense,” Harrison said. “If that happens, we would go forward to a jury trial based on the facts or his mental capabilities or incapabilities.

“There’s really nothing we can do until we get him to the point that he can assist me because without him assisting me, I can’t represent his side of the story. Whether or not they can get him to that point is the question to me. That’s really what I’m waiting for, and if indeed they can, then we look forward to his day in court.”

Adams said the doctor also included his opinion on Goulart’s state of mind on Nov. 24 when he allegedly shot and killed his brother.

“The doctor also indicated on his report that at this time his opinion is at the time of the offense, he was unable to appreciate what he was doing,” he said. “Now, that, of course, is the doctor’s opinion. It can be challenged in that there are other issues that the doctor may or may not have known about at the time, including extensive drug use. The doctor’s opinion could change, but ultimately, it is a question for a jury to determine whether or not he was able to understand the consequences of his actions. That would be way down the road.”

Harrison only replied that any opinion on Goulart’s mental state at the time of the murder is “a determination for a jury in the end, a jury and a judge.”

Harrison asked the public to remember that all people are innocent until proven guilty.

“What’s troubling me and what’s changed over the last few 15 years, maybe, since social media, you just can’t seem to get a fair trial,” he said. “It seems like everybody’s gotten him already tried and convicted on social media, and it’s cumbersome to me. This is a country that (you are) innocent until proven guilty, but I’ll tell you on that social media, you’re not.

“It really bothers me. What troubles me is that somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 or 1.6 million American lives have been given for us to be innocent until proven guilty, but somebody can read a five-minute article online and forego that and go ahead and convict somebody.”

He called for those following this and other cases, especially on social media, to wait until the case is over to make any judgments.