Insanity Trial: Sam Believed Mother-In-Law Poisoned His Food

JOLIET, IL - A forensic psychiatrist who testified he was involved in the notorious murder cases of Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and Naperville child killer Marilyn Lemak urged a Will County jury to find defendant Bahaa Sam not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in the December 2012 bludgeoning death of Sam's 38-year-old wife, Nermeen.

The murder victim was beaten to death by Sam with a weightlifting bar. Sam is represented by the Chuck Bretz Law Firm. Bretz and Neil Patel are handling the trial. They conceded that their client killed his wife in brutal fashion on Dec. 19, 2012. They maintain the Tinley Park man was legally insane at the time of the killing and therefore the jury should not convict Sam of first-degree murder.

On Tuesday, defense expert witness Dr. Carl Wahlstrom of Chicago was on the witness stand for several hours. He became interested in the field of psychiatry during the case of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who killed more than 30 teenage boys and young men during the 1970s.

Wahlstrom told the jury he had been paid about $24,000 over the past five years as a forensic psychiatry expert for Sam's defense. Dr. Wahlstrom also interviewed Sam one-on-one in June 2014 for two hours as part of his work on the case.

Sam suffered from a major depressive disorder as well as psychosis, Wahlstrom told the jury. "In my opinion, he was not being treated at the time of the death," Wahlstrom testified.

Starting around 2011, Sam's siblings as well as his wife tried unsuccessfully to convince him that he was mentally ill, that he needed to undergo extensive therapy and take his medications, Wahlstrom told the courtroom.

However, Sam remained defiant. Although he went to a number of psychiatry sessions, he began throwing his medications into the garbage and stopped meeting with the therapist, according to Tuesday's testimony.

Sam became distrustful of his wife and his mother-in-law's motives. He also was convinced they were trying to hide poison into his food, Dr. Wahlstrom told the jury.

There was no evidence of this, it was all pure fantasy, the jury heard.

Before he became mentally unstable, the jury heard, Sam was involved in a restaurant venture but "he was asked to leave because of his inability to concentrate."

However, Sam "believed that the business partners were stealing from him, that they were all against him," Wahlstrom testified.

Patel asked his witness whether Sam at one point began hearing voices. Yes, the witness testified.

"He heard someone talking into his ear, telling him, he's going to lose his business," Wahlstrom testified. "(But) he did not indicate any hallucinations."

In 2011 and 2012, Sam and his wife began to sink into a financial hardship as he remained out of work. They were also raising four young children. He went on at least 10 job interviews over a period of several months leading up to his wife's murder, but all his interviews were failures.

According to testimony, Sam stopped taking showers and bathing. He underwent dramatic weight loss. He lost his appetite. His family members noticed he was staring at them and made inappropriate laughing outbursts, the witness testified.

"She noticed those changes over a two-year period," Wahlstrom testified of Sam's sister.

Sam, though, staunchly refused to believe he was mentally ill. He denied needing psychiatric help, Wahlstrom told the jury.

Sam was born and raised in Egypt and in the Egyptian culture, a person considered psychotic "is someone that is a raving lunatic (who runs) naked in the streets, out of control. (They) will be noticed by others and not in a good way," Wahlstrom testified.

At one point Tuesday, defense lawyer Neil Patel made a reference to the classic 1975 movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson as mental patient Randall "Mac" McMurphy and actress Louise Fletcher who played the villain role as Nurse Ratched.

After mentioning the famous movie, Patel asked his expert witness a couple more questions about lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy. The questions were asked in the context of today's psychiatry profession in terms of helping people get proper treatment.

"We're not doing lobotomies; ECT is still done," Wahlstrom told the jury.

And during Tuesday's testimony, Wahlstrom was asked repeatedly about Sam's delusional belief that his mother-in-law and his wife were supposedly trying to poison his food.

By then, Sam "had become a completely different person. (His brother) indicated he was staying in his bedroom, doing nothing, refusing to get out of the house. (Sam) believed Nermeen's mother was completely destroying their lives and that was affecting them."

According to Wahlstrom, Sam "referred to her as Judas the Iscariot, or the tricky widow."

The murder trial of Bahaa Sam is expected to wrap up later this week. The Will County State's Attorney's Office finished presenting its evidence last week.

Mugshot of Bahaa Sam via Will County Sheriff