POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — A former teacher who admitted killing a teenager and eating part of his body 27 years ago still belongs in a secured mental ward, two psychiatrists told a judge.
Dr. Khin Myo testified Wednesday that Albert Fentress did not currently display symptoms of major mental illness but said he cannot grasp Paul Masters’ murder, or why he sexually mutilated and cannibalized the young man.
Fentress petitioned the state Supreme Court to be released from a locked prison ward in Orange County, 50 miles north of New York City.
He was found innocent by reason of insanity in the 1979 murder and mutilation of Masters, 18.
The middle school teacher confessed to killing Masters after the youth wandered into his yard. Fentress lured him into the basement, tied him to a post, sexually abused and mutilated him, and shot him twice in the head before cooking and eating parts of his body.
Fentress had lived in a nonsecure psychiatric hospital in Suffolk County until 2002, when he admitted sexually abusing two young boys years before.
Myo said Fentress cannot describe that abuse or the killing. “If he can’t remember it, or talk about it, he isn’t dealing with it,” Myo said.
The psychiatrist and Dr. Muthaiah Chandrasekahara, who both evaluated Fentress, contend he suffers from sexual sadism and pedophilia.
The hearing was to resume July 6.