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Man accused of killing 3 elderly Newton residents is ‘not competent’ to stand trial due to mental illness, judge rules
Christopher Ferguson, 41, allegedly stabbed and beat Gilda and Bruno D'Amore and Gilda's mother, Lucia Arpino, to death in their Newton home on June 25.
A Newton District Court judge decided Monday that Christopher Ferguson, the man accused of killing three elderly Newton residents in their home in late June, is “not competent” enough to stand trial for murder due to his mental illness.
On June 25, Ferguson allegedly broke into the home of 73-year-old Gilda “Jill” D’Amore, her husband, 74-year-old Bruno D’Amore, and her mother, 97-year-old Lucia Arpino, and stabbed and beat them to death.
The murders appear to have been random, as 41-year-old Ferguson did not know the three family members. Investigators identified Ferguson as a suspect through a bloody footprint and surveillance video.
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Soon after Ferguson was arrested on June 26, it was revealed that he had a long history of mental illness. He suffers from bipolar disorder, and had reportedly been in a manic episode since February.
On Monday, Judge Jennifer Queally ruled Ferguson incompetent to stand trial for the killings based on a medical evaluation completed last week. She decided Ferguson should stay at Bridgewater State Hospital, a Department of Correction mental health treatment center where he is currently being held.
Despite the judge’s decision, Ferguson’s lawyer Dmitri Lev told The Boston Globe he expects his client to be indicted by a grand jury in the next few weeks. If that happens, a Superior Court judge would need to choose whether to accept Queally’s competency decision or order a new psychiatric evaluation.
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If Ferguson was still deemed incompetent to stand trial at that point, Lev said he would be reevaluated every six months, the Globe reported. That process could continue indefinitely, he said, but were Ferguson ever to pass a competency evaluation, he would then be tried.
As of Monday, Ferguson is facing a murder charge in connection with the death of Gilda D’Amore, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the other two deaths, and one count of burglary. He previously pleaded not guilty to these charges, but prosecutors have said more charges might be added.
Under Massachusetts law, Lev has the option to move that the criminal charges against Ferguson be dropped if Ferguson still isn’t deemed competent after a long period of time, the Globe reported. He can also ask for the charges to be dropped under the rationale that having Ferguson become a permanent resident at a mental health treatment center is “in the interest of justice.”
Ferguson is due back in court on Oct. 10.
Ferguson’s mental health history
Ferguson, who grew up in Newton and was living there at the time of the murders, graduated from the University of Southern California and was a member of an honors society, the Globe reported. He worked as a campus aide at Framingham Public Schools for two years ending in March 2023.
More on the D'Amores' murder
But leading up to the killings, people around Ferguson noticed negative changes in his behavior. A woman he’d known from high school said she’d “noticed a marked difference in his behavior from the Chris I’d known the last seven years,” the Globe reported.
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Ferguson frequently wrote online about struggling with bipolar disorder, the Globe reported. Over the course of nearly 40 blogposts on blackandbipolar.net, he reportedly detailed five manic episodes which happened every two years or so between 2005 and 2014.
Ferguson wrote that he was diagnosed with the disorder in his early 20s, the Globe reported. He was then hospitalized for mental health treatment 11 times and often had suicidal thoughts, he reportedly wrote.
Ferguson appears to have published an article about his mental health history on the blog site Medium in November 2020. “‘Bipolar. Extremely manic to be precise,’ That was the diagnosis that required about thirty seconds of Dr. Henderson’s sustained observation,” the article begins.
Despite his diagnosis, as a child, Ferguson was known for being quiet, he said in the article. But in the midst of his manic episode, he said his doctor was “a bit shaken, if not altogether troubled and wholly disturbed by the mass exodus of verbiage” Ferguson was expressing.
“I was not always like this,” he wrote.
What we know about the murders
The D’Amores were celebrating their 50th anniversary the weekend they were killed. Their bodies were discovered just before 10:15 a.m. on June 25 by a friend who checked on them after they did not attend a church service during which their marriage was to be honored.
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All three victims were stabbed and beaten. Gilda D’Amore suffered more than 30 injuries, primarily to her upper body and head. Police found a knife still in Arpino’s body and another bloody knife in the D’Amores’ kitchen.
Authorities found obvious signs of struggle in one of the bedrooms, including broken furniture and a blood-covered crystal paperweight. They also found signs of forced entry in the basement of the D’Amores’ Broadway Street home.
Using a forensic chemical, police found a bloody bare footprint in the home which they later linked to Ferguson. When they confronted him, he had dirty feet and a cut on his hand which he tried to hide.
Security video from near Ferguson’s home showed him walking with no shirt or shoes and a “staggering gait” around 5:20 a.m. on June 25. Police also found objects nearby, such as boots and a backpack, that appeared to belong to him.
Neighbors saw Ferguson walking the neighborhood in the weeks before the killings, but said he did not seem violent. He was hospitalized for mental health issues on June 10, but was released by the 20th against the wishes of his family.
Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this article.
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