A decision that would allow an Oregon man who took his mother’s severed head to a supermarket to be sent to a psychiatric hospital has sparked outrage.
Joshua Webb, 43, has been living at Oregon State Hospital in Salem since pleading guilty, without plea of insanity, to the murder of his mother, 59-year-old Tina Webb, and the stabbing of a grocery store worker in 2017.
After the horrific act, psychiatrists from both the prosecution and the defense determined that Webb had schizophrenia and was experiencing psychosis at the time of the murder.
They said Webb suffered from hallucinations, delusions and hearing voices in his head and speaking despite taking anti-psychotic medications for a year.
But Dr. Karl Mobbs, a forensic psychiatrist who has been involved in Webb’s treatment for the past 18 months, argued that he should be transferred from the state hospital to a 16-bed residential treatment facility called Lifeways McNary Place.
Joshua Webb, 43, pleaded guilty, except for insanity, to the murder of his mother, 59-year-old Tina Webb, and the stabbing of a convenience store worker in 2018
He has since been living at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, but a doctor now says he is well enough to be transferred to a residential treatment facility
He advocated for Webb’s “parole,” telling the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board on Wednesday that Webb now recognizes the need to take medications, reports the Oregonian.
The doctor said he avoids conflict with other patients and participates in classes and “therapeutic opportunities” more often than other patients.
Webb has done so well, Mobbs says, that he now lives in the psychiatric hospital’s lowest security level, with restrictions much the same as those he would face at Lifeways McNary Place. He also has privileges, such as working in a greenhouse on the hospital grounds.
“Mr. Webb has been doing a good job for a number of years,” he told the five-member board during a virtual hearing, as Webb sat next to him in a room at the state hospital.
But a woman who identified herself as the daughter of Mike Wagner, a supermarket worker who was stabbed multiple times by Webb, opposed the transfer.
“I believe in the justice system and in some ways in rehabilitation,” she said, according to the Oregonian.
But given the violent and horrific crimes committed that day, I do not believe justice was done.
“It is a terrifying thought that someone who was capable of such acts on that day could ever be released from any prison,” she added.
Webb carried his mother’s head to the Harvest Market Thriftway, drank a soda, and then attacked Wagner without warning.
Webb carried the head of his mother, Tina, left, to the Harvest Market Thriftway, drank a soda and then without warning attacked a grocery store worker
Oregon Department of Justice Attorney Elisabeth Warner also urged the board to keep Webb in the state hospital, saying there was a documented lack of empathy and an apparent reluctance to apologize for his crimes.
But Mobbs said it is difficult for Webb to talk about the horrific violence he committed on May 14, 2017.
“I’ve been able to talk to him about it and I can tell he has empathy for what happened,” he said, though he acknowledged that Webb’s empathy is “probably on the low side of normal.”
Still, he maintained that Webb was “extremely ill” when he behaved violently, “and he feels that people across the table would understand that it was his illness that led him to behave that way.”
However, Warner said she was not affected by it.
“I am concerned that removing Mr. Webb from the structure and familiarity of the hospital could do more harm than good to everyone involved in this matter.”
Clackamas County Chief Assistant District Attorney Scott Healey also opposed the measure, calling Webb’s violent behavior outrageous.
“This individual should not be released on any form of parole at this time,” he said.
Webb admitted to killing his mother, dismembering her body and killing his dog
Prosecutors said Webb had vision problems and was living at home so his parents could care for him.
In the weeks before the brutal murder, his mother had told him that Webb had been “acting strangely lately” and was “losing his mind,” court documents state.
The strange behavior only got worse when Webb thought his girlfriend was trying to kill him and prick him with an unknown substance, and that Fox TV was “owning” him.
He also told his girlfriend that there was a black box in the garage with a device that was filming him. He also complained that he felt like an octopus was sucking on the back of his head, two months before the murder.
On Mother’s Day 2017, surveillance footage from Harvest Market Thriftway showed Webb running into the store with his mother’s head and a large knife.
Bystanders managed to detain the then 36-year-old man until the police arrived.
Webb later admitted to killing his mother, dismembering her body, and killing his dog.
He also confessed to killing his dog and later stabbing Wagner, but he never gave a motive for this brutality.