After a guilty verdict, the trial against Cora Vides enters the phase of sanity

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The same Santa Barbara jury that found Cora Vides guilty of attempted murder in the death of her Laguna Blanca classmate Georgia Avery began hearing arguments about Vides' sanity at the time on Aug. 15. At this stage of the trial, the jury will ultimately decide where Vides will serve her sentence – in a state prison or a state mental hospital.

The jury must assume that Vides was mentally sound at the time of the stabbing attack, and the burden of proof is on the defense. To meet the requirements for insanity, Vides must have had a mental illness or defect at the time of the stabbing attack, and that defect must have led to her failure to understand the quality and nature of her actions. or not being able to distinguish between right and wrong

“Although Ms. Vides was of sound mind, she never intended to hurt Ms. Avery,” said defense attorney Todd Maybrown. But Vides' mental “decompensation” in the weeks before the attack caused her to “engage intrusive thoughts, bad thoughts that she couldn't get out of her head,” he argued.

Dr. Brandon Yakush, a court-appointed forensic psychologist, testified that Vides was insane the night of the stabbing due to a combination of major depressive disorder and dissociative disorder – both “qualifying disorders” for insanity. He added that she had feelings of depersonalization and derealization during the attack, commonly known as an out-of-body experience.

A new contraceptive that Vides began taking in December 2020 “was a major factor in her depression worsening during that time,” Dr. Yakush said, but there is no literature supporting a case of contraception-induced dissociation, he added.

Although he “did not believe psychosis occurred,” Dr. Yakush said there was “overwhelming” evidence that Vides was in a dissociative state when she stabbed Avery. Vides' blank stare during the attack and her subsequent “waking up” are consistent with dissociation – she “may be there and then not.”

Furthermore, Dr. Yakush claimed that Vides could not distinguish between right and wrong at the time and was instead in a sort of “dream state.” “She knew the harm she was doing to the victim, but she did not know she was causing it herself,” he testified.

In a seven-hour examination spanning two days, Dr. Yakush found that Vides was coherent, goal-oriented, and had well-organized thoughts, with no signs of delusions, hallucinations, or paranoia. However, her intermittent, intrusive ideas “eventually engulfed Avery” and caused the seizure.

Of the 30 to 40 mental status examinations Dr. Yakush has conducted, he found that 71 percent were sane and 29 percent were mentally ill—and only a small handful of those were women. The People raised this point with questions about implicit bias. “I explained it as well as I thought I could,” Dr. Yakush replied.

He also acknowledged that “many doctors use different definitions of mental illness” to reach their conclusions and that “there are still parts of this case that are puzzling.”

Dr. Luigi Piciucco, a clinical and forensic psychologist retained by Vides' previous attorney, testified via videoconference and agreed with Dr. Yakush's conclusion that the defendant was insane. Both found no evidence of malingering or lying about one's symptoms to avoid a particular outcome.

If the jury finds Vides sane, she will be sentenced to 11 years to life in prison. This means she will not be eligible for parole until she has served 11 years. If she is found insane, she will be sent to a psychiatric hospital, where doctors will decide how long she will stay. The length of her stay could range from six months – the minimum length of the assessment – to much longer, depending on the outcome of her treatment.

The sanity phase of the trial will continue until Monday, August 19.