CHARLESTON, South Carolina — Convicted mass murderer Dylann Roof told a psychologist working for his defense team that his death penalty wouldn’t be carried out because he’d “be rescued by white nationalists after they took over the government.”
That’s according to a November report composed amid Roof’s trial for killing nine parishioners in 2015 at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The report also says Roof was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder “based on the presence of social-communication challenges and atypical behaviors.”
It goes on to say Roof was suffering or had suffered from “psychiatric symptoms that are not explained by autism spectrum disorder, including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, disordered thinking, and psychosis (including delusions of grandeur and somatic delusions).”
Roof’s somatic delusions — which are defined as false beliefs that something is grossly wrong with one’s body — include unfounded complaints of hair loss and thyroid disease, according to reports.
“It is my impression that it is too early to predict his psychiatric trajectory,” Dr. Rachel Loftin wrote in one report, “but his symptoms appear to me to be consistent with the schizophrenia spectrum.”
Document dump
The revelations came after US District Judge Richard Gergel unsealed 19 documents from competency hearings that help paint a picture of the 23-year-old’s mental state both as a teen and while he was being held in prison after the church massacre.
In November, a judge halted jury selection in the case to allow time for Roof to undergo a competency evaluation. Roof was ruled competent to stand trial, represent himself and be sentenced. (In January, Roof became the first person to receive the death penalty for a federal hate crime. He pleaded guilty to a slew of state charges last month.)
Gergel also allowed journalists to view four videos, captured in November and January, but would not permit the footage to be publicly released. CNN’s reporter is expected to finish viewing the videos early Tuesday afternoon. It’s not clear what the tapes contain.
Some of the information about Roof’s mental state was contained in a December document, released in February, that showed defense attorneys sought special accommodations for their client after competency hearings indicated Roof suffered from a range of disorders.
‘A very anxious man’
But the documents released this week go deeper and also delve into his childhood, which was marked by normal maladies such as colds, fevers, sore throats and the like.
As a teen, however, Roof visited a family doctor who called him “a very anxious man.”
In 2009, as Roof was entering high school at age 13, his mother took him to Lexington County Community Mental Health Center because he was defying her, using drugs, skipping school and engaging in “oppositional behavior.” His mother told a doctor that at school, Roof’s As had become Fs, according to court documents.
He also experienced anxiety in social situations, with one report saying that he “worries about it all the time” and at one point threatened to run away and kill himself because his mother had made him go to school. He later told his mom the threat was a bluff.
The report suggests Roof self-medicated with drugs and alcohol. He told doctors he had no intention of quitting his use of marijuana, the documents say. Roof was prescribed an antidepressant.
Roof maintains he doesn’t need care
Psychological and medical records from the county jail where he was held after the church massacre show Roof was removed from suicide watch in August 2015, two months after the killings.
He spent most of his time in his room sitting or lying on his cot, only coming out when “he had something to do,” according to jail logs. A jail counselor reported that Roof was “doing well in general” and had stated he didn’t need mental health care.
During his federal trial, Roof requested that the judge reinstate his legal team for the guilt phase of the trial. He asked to represent himself again during sentencing.
“There’s nothing wrong with me psychologically,” Roof told jurors ahead of sentencing. “Anything you heard from my lawyers in the last phase, I ask you to forget it.”