MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A psychiatric expert has determined that a Portuguese former model should be held responsible for the alleged murder and mutilation of his older lover at a Times Square hotel last year, according to a report filed Friday.
Renato Seabra, 22, was charged with murdering and castrating Carlos Castro, a 65-year-old journalist and gay-rights activist, on Jan. 7, 2011, inside a suite at the InterContinental Hotel.
The report, filed by a doctor hired by prosecuting attorneys, concluded that Seabra was not suffering from a psychiatric breakdown at the time of the alleged murder.
The doctor "found that Mr. Seabra had the capacity to know what he was doing was wrong," Seabra's lawyer, David Touger, acknowledged of the report he received during a brief court appearance Friday.
Touger's own expert found that Seabra was suffering from a psychiatric defect and could not have reasonably known what he was doing. Several other experts who examined him the night of the killing also reached that conclusion, Touger said in court.
The lawyer plans to pursue an insanity defense and argue that Seabra should be found not guilty when the case eventually goes to trial.
The case was adjourned to March 9.
