Brother vs. brother in murder trial of father

CLEARWATER, Fla. - What many considered a crazy defense is getting some backing. Police accused Steven Coffeen of killing his father. He said he was insane at the time because of a lack of sleep and a lot of Red Bull. Psychological experts seem to agree about his mental state.

This is a fractured family drama being played out in open court.

One brother accused of killing his own father and his other brother pleading for justice.

When Steven Coffeen entered Courtroom 3, he seemed sane but said nothing. His attorneys talked. about his mental state.
"Psychological experts in the state have consistently found the defendant would meet criteria for the insanity defense, said Assistant State's Attorney Kendall Davidson.

It's unusual for prosecutors to go with an insanity plea but that is what is happening from the murder case stemming from the smothering death of 84-year-old Robert Coffeen. Steven, his son visiting from California in 2009, claimed self-defense at first and was then angling with the so-called Red Bull defense. Now this.

The judge was ready to set another hearing date when Robert's other son, big brother Tom, asked to be heard.

"He knows he's deceiving everyone," said Tom -- just a few feet from his looking-straight-ahead younger sibling. "He knows what happened. I know what happened. He clearly came here to kill my father. He's a danger to me, my family, and society."

I need to consider getting to the just solution," said Judge Nancy Ley flatly. She gave both sides who want Steven to go to the state Mental Hospital for treatment and the brother who wants the trial to go forward, a week to gather materials to convince her.

"I made a mistake," said Tom outside the courthouse "I should have never let my father alone. I will regret that for life and they will let a murderer on the streets. it's not right."

But according to at least four psychologists, it was Steven who was was not right mentally when he killed his dad -- so this insanity defense may stick.

"There's no reason to think he's anything other than very sick man with a very serious mental illness he needs help," said Defense counsel George Tragos, who initially offered up the so-called Red Bull defense over the initial phases of this trial .

There will be one more week for all of this to come together. The judge asked all three sides to come back into the same court at the same time next Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.

She'll hopefully have more of an idea how to proceed in this case if they're going to proceed at all.

Story courtesy of ABCActionNews.com