The father of Andrew Downs describes son's slide into schizophrenia

Posted: Feb 1, 2012 6:59 PM by Nancy Chen
Updated: Feb 2, 2012 8:12 AM

The father of Andrew Downs, Gary Downs, described his son's slide into schizophrenia during his testimony in Andrew's sanity trial on Wednesday.

It was the third day in the trial to decide whether Andrew goes to a mental hospital or prison. Andrew is accused of shooting and killing two women, sisters Beverly Reilly and Kathy Yeager, in Santa Margarita on Christmas Day 2010. Andrew plead guilty by reason of insanity last month, waiving his right to a jury.

On the stand, Gary described Andrew was an ideal student, enrolled in the gifted-and-talented program and excelling at band until 10th grade. He says he first realized something was wrong when he found Andrew awake at two in the morning.

"I saw him working on a paper and said 'What are you doing?'" he recounted. "He said, 'I can't focus anymore.'"

From there, Gary says Andrew began to slide backwards, experiencing his first psychotic break from schizophrenia at 15.

"We were frightened," he said. "We were unexpectedly unprepared for this."

With his breaks becoming more frequent, Andrew wouldn't watch TV or touch anything with an electrical current.

"Raising his hands, praying, he'd be against the wall for four hours at a time," Gary said.

The A-student's grades dropped as his case became more severe, with Andrew growing terrified to the point of hysteria at times. He also started waving to strangers in cars, saying he thought everyone had a good heart.

"There wasn't anybody that wasn't deserving a wave or a smile," Gary said. He also talked about how Andrew was so heavily medicated at times, he was basically sedated and would fall asleep in class.

Describing his family as "sinking," Gary, his wife, and their other child, a daughter, all sought counseling.

"You just don't know what to do," he said. "And you just try to find any help you can."

The trial is expected to last through at the least the end of this week, possibly going into next Tuesday.