Expert: Accused babysitter killer in a 'psychotic state'

Juan Rivera was in a "stress-induced acute psychotic state" when he confessed to the murder of Holly Staker, a psychiatrist testified Friday.

Rivera, 36, is on trial for the third time in Lake County Circuit Court for the Aug. 11, 1992 rape and murder of the 11-year-old Waukegan baby sitter. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1993 and 1998, but new trials were ordered after both convictions.

During testimony Friday, psychiatrist Robert Galatzer-Levy said he reviewed records of the case and conducted two, 90-minute interviews with Rivera on behalf of his defense team. In his opinion, Galatzer-Levy said, Rivera was mentally broken under the weight of four days of police questioning about the murder.

At the point when Rivera broke down and began crying while talking to detectives in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 1992, a limit had been reached, Galatzer-Levy said.

Earlier in the case, Detectives testified they left Rivera alone for about 15 minutes so he could compose himself, and he confessed once they returned to the room.

But Rivera was in no position to understand what he was doing, Galatzer-Levy said, because of what he was going through at the time.

"In my opinion, he was in a stress-induced psychotic state," he said. "All of us have some limit to what we can tolerate, and after that we develop a method to block it out."

Rivera has a long history of mental instability, Galatzer-Levy said, that includes previous mental health treatment and suicide attempts. Rivera also has an IQ of 79, and suffers from depressive personality disorder, he said.

Rivera was susceptible to the detectives questioning him about the murder, Galatzer-Levy said, because he was trying to please them.

"Mr. Rivera spends a whole lot of time trying to make himself feel better about himself," he said. "He said things he believed would make his interviewers feel better about him."

During cross-examination, Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel challenged Galatzer-Levy's ability to diagnose Rivera's mental condition 17 years in the past.

Galatzer-Levy said he had reviewed the results of psychological tests Rivera was given in 1993, but not the tests themselves and could not say for sure the tests were administered properly.

He also said he had seen only five pages of police reports concerning the questioning, when there were actually more than 100 pages of such documents.