Chappell attorney: Mental health care insufficient

BOSTON – Defense attorney Daniel Solomon said the Department of Mental Health “dropped the ball” in providing safe and appropriate treatment for Deshawn James Chappell, the man convicted Monday of first-degree murder in the stabbing of 25-year-old social worker Stephanie Moulton at the group home where Chappell lived and Moulton worked.”It was an inestimable tragedy and one that should have been prevented,” Solomon said Tuesday. “DMH (The Department of Mental Health) really dropped the ball on this.”A jury convicted Chappell, 30, Monday of first-degree murder in the January 2011 death of Moulton.Solomon argued during the trial that Chappell, a schizophrenic with a long documented history of hearing voices and who has been institutionalized five times, was not criminally responsible for the killing due to mental illness.Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin said Chappell’s actions before and after the killing – including waiting until he was alone with Moulton before attacking her, trying to destroy evidence, dumping Moulton’s body in a Lynn parking lot and then driving to Boston to seek help from his family – showed Chappell planned the killing and then tried to cover up evidence of the crime.A Suffolk County jury favored the prosecution’s argument, convicting Chappell of a crime for which he was sentenced to the mandatory life in prison without parole.Solomon said Tuesday he disagreed with the jury’s verdict, but he thought the jury was “good” and “conscientious.”Solomon also said that both the Moulton family and the Chappell family have lost a beloved child, for which Solomon criticized the management and a lack of resources in the Department of Mental Health.Solomon said Chappell had been moved into a home with less direct-staff supervision and security for residents after Chappell was in a fight.”The decision was not made by treatment staff? it was made by managers,” Solomon said.Solomon noted Moulton’s family was trying to file a civil lawsuit against the DMH.He also referenced a column by Boston Herald writer Peter Gelzinis which quoted Kimberly Flynn, Moulton’s mother, as saying after the verdict that she blamed Chappell and the DMH “equally” for the homicide.Solomon said Chappell’s mother also criticized the DMH.Solomon said how Chappell’s mother – who, along with other members of Chappell’s family, were “devastated” by the verdict – had fought to get her son the appropriate services; only able to navigate the system due to her own career in health care.Chappell had a pretty “muted” reaction to the verdict, Solomon said. “I think he’s still in a state of bewilderment as to how it happened and where he was,” he said.And while the trial resolved the criminal case, it did not resolve the underlying issue of safe and appropriate mental-health care for both care providers and patients.Ironically, finding Chappell criminally responsible for the killing, the Commonwealth now finds itself fully responsible for Chappell.And Solomon said he couldn’t speak for long Tuesday. He said he needed to ensure any attorney who handles the appeal case, as first-degree murder convictions trigger an automatic appeal, is aware of the legal filings necessary for Chappell to receive the appropriate medication while in prison.