Palatine man not guilty because of insanity in wife's death

"There is no sham here," insisted Thomas J. Tyrrell, defense attorney for Albert Rumlow, on trial in Rolling Meadows for the 2008 murder of his wife, Janet, in the couple's Palatine home.

"This is no made-up story to get someone off a murder charge," said Tyrrell in his closing argument urging the court to find his client not guilty by reason of insanity.

It was the case, Tyrrell said, of a seriously ill man who lacked the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct at the time.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kay Hanlon agreed. Citing the testimony of forensic psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Markos - who she called "the most important witness in the course of this trial" - Hanlon acquitted the 74-year-old Rumlow, to the relief of his family and friends who had attended the two-day trial.

"It's what we wanted," said an emotional Mark Rumlow, the couple's oldest son, who now lives in Colorado.

Mark Rumlow and his brother Todd, of West Dundee, testified on behalf of their father. They said their childhood - which consisted of nightly dinners, family vacations and church every Sunday - was happy and they described Albert and Janet as excellent parents and a loving couple. Longtime friend and Palatine neighbor Steen Munter, 69, agreed.

"You don't stay with someone you don't love that long," he said of the Rumlows' 44-year marriage.

But prosecutors say the Rumlows' storybook life ended Dec. 17, 2008, when Albert inexplicably bludgeoned and stabbed his wife to death.

No one saw it coming, but several people noticed a change in Rumlow in the months before the murder, according to testimony in the trial. Todd Rumlow said the man who once let his grandchildren "climb on him like a jungle gym" withdrew, became "more removed," and stared out the window instead of conversing with his family.

Returning to Palatine after several months away, Munter encountered a different Rumlow, one who had grown quiet and who no longer socialized with other neighbors in the tight-knit community.

Markos, the chief of Forensic Clinical Services for the Circuit Court of Cook County who has conducted 10,000 psychiatric evaluations over 26 years, provided an explanation. A review of police, medical and psychiatric records plus several interviews with Rumlow led Markos to diagnose Rumlow as seriously depressed. He had lost interest in things that once gave him pleasure like playing with his grandchildren, said Markos. He suffered from insomnia and had feelings of hopelessness, and he had risk factors for depression, Markos said.

They included his age, ongoing health issues (a bout with sciatica kept him bedridden for several weeks during 2008); chronic worry; feelings of hopelessness and major life events including a significant loss of retirement funds due to the economic downturn, his son's diagnosis with a brain tumor, another son's impending layoff and guilt and self-reproach over his youngest son's suicide 19 years earlier.

"He felt the whole world was collapsing around him... He had lost control," said Markos who diagnosed Rumlow with a major depressive disorder and called his beliefs irrational

Seeing no way out, Rumlow decided to kill himself but feared leaving Janet behind to suffer, Markos said, repeating Rumlow's comment, "We were always a couple. I didn't want to split up the pair."

Markos testified that the consistency of reports of Rumlow's behavior from emergency personnel, physicians, family members, neighbors and Rumlow himself bolstered the defense's insanity claims.

"None of this is made up," said Markos. Under cross examination, he refuted assistant state's attorney Mike Gerber's suggestion that Rumlow acted out of rage or might be malingering. "There is no doubt in my mind. Not only was malingering not a factor, but (his actions were) a result of a serious mental illness."

Hanlon remanded Rumlow to the custody of the Department of Human Services, which will determine whether he needs mental health treatment and if so, if it requires involuntary admission to a DHS facility. The court reviews the report on March 8.