A Pinal County Superior Court judge orders a Casa Grande man committed to the Arizona State Hospital, a secure psychiatric facility, after finding him guilty except insane on all charges stemming from a 2013 murder case.
On Thursday, August 18th, the judge found 40-year-old Joseph Cain Cecil guilty on all charges, including one count of 1st Degree Premeditated Murder; one count of Attempted 1st Degree Murder; and one count of Aggravated Assault with a Weapon. The defendant was sentenced to life in prison, but due to the guilty except insane finding, the judge ordered him committed to the Arizona State Hospital, rather than the Department of Corrections, as required by Arizona law.
In October 2013, the defendant attacked his mother and aunt, by stabbing them multiple times. He also attacked a neighbor who stepped in to provide first aid to the victims. The defendant’s mother, then 65-year-old Ronna Thomas, died after arriving to the Casa Grande Regional Medical Center.
Prior to Thursday’s ruling by the judge, both the State and the Court’s mental health experts evaluated the defendant’s mental state and found him to be guilty except insane at the time of the murder. “This defendant brutally stabbed his mother to death, attacked her sister, and tried assaulting a neighbor who came to their rescue. While this defendant deserves the life sentence he received, in view of this mental status at the time of the crime, he will be remanded to a secure facility at the Arizona State Hospital.