Patient and 3 staffers charged in another patient’s beating death at mental health facility

Columbus, Ohio — A patient, two psychiatric assistants and a nurse have been indicted on charges related to the death of another patient at a state-run mental health facility in Ohio.

A 24-year-old man who allegedly attacked the 57-year-old victim at Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare in Columbus on July 23, 2022, has been charged with murder and assault, The Columbus Dispatch reported Friday.

At the time, the alleged attacker was being evaluated by forensic psychologists at the facility to determine whether he was competent to stand trial in a sexual battery case, according to district court records.

The victim had been at the facility for about a month after being found incompetent in a 2022 case in which he was charged with murder in the September 2021 death of a woman, according to Cuyahoga County court records.

The facility is where Ohio courts send people accused of crimes for forensic psychological evaluation. It also houses patients with serious mental health needs who have been referred there from other mental health or behavioral health facilities.

Details about the attack and its possible motive have not been released. An autopsy by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office revealed that the victim died of a blunt force wound to the head.

John Traylor, 65, and Augustine Norris, 66 – both of whom were psychiatric assistants at the facility before retiring last spring – and Julie Willoughby, 40, who was a nurse, are each charged with involuntary manslaughter and abuse or neglect of patients, according to court documents.

All four were indicted by a county grand jury, and the indictment was made public Friday. Court records do not indicate that any of the four have hired attorneys, nor are their phone numbers listed.