[B]URLINGTON — A forensic psychiatrist hired by the defense team for Steven Bourgoin said the former Williston man was growing delusional in the days leading to a crash that killed five teens, thinking he had been tapped for a top secret government mission.
Then, Dr. David Rosmarin testified, the 38-year-old Bourgoin became increasingly nervous and paranoid, wondering if he stumbled across something in his internet research on missile bases that “they” didn’t want him to know and he might be in trouble.
Rosmarin of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, said Monday that, in his opinion, Bourgoin, now facing five counts of murder in the death of the teens, was legally insane at the time of the crash on Oct. 8, 2016, as he traveled the wrong way on Interstate 89 in Williston.
“The driver of his psychosis is his elevated mood,” Rosmarin said of Bourgoin from the witness stand. The doctor added that in the days before the late Saturday night crash, Bourgoin had been becoming manic, staying up later, spending more time on the internet.
By Wednesday of that week, Rosmarin said, Bourgoin reported that he believed the television was sending him Morse code messages through the static.
“Then he’s starts thinking, ‘My electronics are communicating with me — who could do that but the government — it’s the NSA,’” Rosmarin testified of Bourgoin, adding that at times Bourgoin thought his vehicle’s radio was directing him through the rhythm of the music.
“He can’t figure out it, except that it’s the government, ‘They’re communicating with me,’” Rosmarin said of Bourgoin.
“He’s seeing signals everywhere,” Rosmarin said. “By Thursday and Friday he’s off to the races, he’s delusional.”
Rosmarin testified Monday as the case turns to the insanity defense being raised by Bourgoin’s counsel as he stands trial on the five counts of second-degree murder in the death of the teens.
The defense is expected to try to bolster Rosmarin’s determination regarding their client with testimony Wednesday by Dr. Reena Kapoor of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Kapoor, who initially had been a prosecution expert and also examined Bourgoin, also determined that Bourgoin was insane at the time of the crash.
The prosecution is expected to cross-examine Rosmarin Tuesday.
It rested its case on Thursday, following four days of testimony.
They painted a picture of Bourgoin as in a rage over his work, finances, and a child custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend. The day before the crash, Bourgoin had quit his warehouse job at Lake Champlain Chocolates.
Police said Bourgoin was driving a 2012 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck the wrong way in the southbound lane of I-89 when he crashed into the Volkswagen Jetta with the five teenagers inside.
Shortly after the first Williston police officer arrived on the scene and rushed to the aid of the teens trapped in their vehicle, Bourgoin drove off in that officer’s cruiser.
Moments later, Bourgoin, racing at more than 100 mph in the cruiser and again driving the wrong way on the interstate, returned to the scene of the wreck and crashed into his own truck, as well as several other vehicles that had pulled over on the highway.
The students killed in the crash had been on their way home from a concert in South Burlington. They were Mary Harris, 16, and Cyrus Zschau, 16, both of Moretown; Liam Hale, 16, of Fayston; Eli Brookens, 16, of Waterbury; and Janie Chase Cozzi, 15, of Fayston.
Four of the five were students at Harwood Union High School. Cozzi was a student at Kimball Union Academy, a private school in New Hampshire but was considered part of the Harwood community.
Rosmarin, on the witness stand Monday, spoke of the thousands of pages of documents he reviewed, including those from medical personnel and law enforcement in the case.
He also talked of the two examinations he conducted behind bars of Bourgoin, who has been locked up since shortly after the crash and charges were filed.
Bourgoin reported that he believed he was being recruited by the government, but he couldn’t tell anyone about it because it was “top secret,” Rosmarin testified.
“He’s moving toward anxious and paranoid,” the doctor added of Bourgoin, as the days went by.
By the Friday before the Saturday night crash, Bourgoin had stopped “self-medicating” himself with the marijuana he had been using to cope with his anxiety. Bourgoin reported he needed to stop using marijuana due to the mission he might have been called to complete.
According to records, toxicology testing showed Bourgoin had a high level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system several hours after the fatal crash.
Bourgoin at UVM Medical Center
By Saturday morning, Bourgoin had gone to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, seeking somewhere he could be “safe,” from the government, which he thought might have been turning on him, according to Rosmarin.
“He thought his life was in danger,” Rosmarin said of Bourgoin.
First, he went to a secure area of the medical center’s emergency department when he arrived and left after security told him he wasn’t supposed to be in that area, Rosmarin testified.
Then, a little while later, Bourgoin went back to the medical center’s emergency department, Rosmarin said, and this time checked in.
He told the medical staff he was dealing with anxiety and talked about stresses that he had been experiencing, such as the custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend who was also the mother of his child, according to Rosmarin, and also talked about wanting to be somewhere safe.
Bourgoin was eventually seen by a physician’s assistant, in what Rosmarin called a “pretty superficial” exam.
Told that if he were going to be admitted that he would have to leave his clothes with the medical staff, Rosmarin testified, Bourgoin became concerned, because his passport was in them.
He did not want to give up his passport for fear that he might need if called upon to act as part of the government mission, and since it was top secret, he couldn’t tell that to the medical staff in the emergency room, according to Rosmarin.
That’s when Bourgoin put his clothes on and left the medical center, Rosmarin said, even before emergency department staff could provide him with discharge paperwork for follow-up care.
“He think he’s going to get whisked away and he needs his passport in case he has to go somewhere for the government,” Rosmarin said, “and maybe even go to a foreign land.”
“So what does Mr. Bourgoin tell you about why he left the hospital?” Robert Katims. Bourgoin’s attorney, asked the doctor.
“He said, ‘I couldn’t stay,’” Rosmarin replied.
‘Helmet to helmet contact’
Bourgoin then returned to his home in Williston and slept until around 11:15 p.m. Saturday, when he drove off, and again began to believe he was receiving messages over his vehicle’s radio, directing him.
“He eventually gets on the highway and the radio is singing songs that are like high energy to him,” Rosmarin testified. “He doesn’t really know how he ended up going the wrong direction, and he doesn’t understand it, it wasn’t intentional.”
Then, the doctor said, Bourgoin remembered the impact of the crash with the Volkswagen Jetta, which he likened to “helmet to helmet contact” from his days of playing high school football.
After the crash, according to Rosmarin, Bourgoin went down the median of the interstate, where he saw the Jetta on fire. Bourgoin recounted that the teens inside appeared to him to be “CPR-type mannequins and they appeared to be breathing.”
“He thought that was part of the test, that it was set up,” Rosmarin said, adding that Bourgoin said he believed the government was trying to make it look like a real accident.
Then, according to Rosmarin, Bourgoin reported seeing white and blue lights, and thought he had to escape and he got in the cruiser from the first responding officer to the crash scene while the officer was aiding the teens.
Bourgoin said he believed that the vehicle had been “provided” for him by the government, and after getting in, he headed south on the interstate.
“He sees cars and he interprets after a short while that, in fact, even though he’s going the correct direction, that he’s going the wrong direction,” Rosmarin testified, and as Bourgoin listened to the radio, he made “inferences” from what he heard about what he was supposed to do.
Bourgoin then turned around and drove back to the initial crash scene, slamming the cruiser into his already heavily pickup on the interstate.
“He’s following the directions from his delusions of reference about what to do to be safe, and then follow directions from the government or whatever agencies were directing him,” Rosmarin said.
“He’s terrified,” Rosmarin said of Bourgoin as he drove on the highway before the first crash. “He’s grossly psychotic, he’s just not just mildly psychotic.”
The doctor then added of Bourgoin, “He’s out of it.”
Bid for a mistrial
Earlier Monday, Katims, Bourgoin’s attorney, moved for a mistrial, arguing that prosecutors had failed to disclose information relating to a witness who testified at the trial on Friday.
Judge Kevin Griffin, after taking a recess to consider the matter, returned to say he was allowing the trial to proceed.
Rosmarin, during his testimony Monday, also told the jury that Bourgoin’s life growing up included many traumas.
The doctor testified that Bourgoin had to repeat the first grade, his mother, who suffered mood swings, died of cancer when he was around 12, and his father was an alcoholic. A fire at the family home also claimed the life of his dog, Rosmarin said on the stand.
Rosmarin did say that Bourgoin exceled on the football field while attending Rutland High School, even serving as team captain.
“He’s very smart,” Rosmarin said of Bourgoin.
Bourgoin also was looking forward to a career in the U.S. Army in the 101st Airborne Division, Rosmarin said, enlisting in ROTC. He termed Bourgoin very “patriotic.”
What he cared most deeply about was his daughter, Rosmarin testified, and he had only seen her briefly one week prior to the crash.
It was in May 2016, a few months before the crash, that Bourgoin was charged with domestic assault and unlawful restraint after police said he threatened to drive his ex-girlfriend and their child into a pond unless she agreed to give him shared custody of the child.
Rosmarin on the stand Monday disputed whether Bourgoin ever intended to follow through on his words.
“I don’t think it was an actual threat,” the doctor testified. “He was using it rhetorically.”
That incident, and the stress from it, increased the mood swings Bourgoin had been experiencing, the doctor testified.
Rosmarin added that due to his mental condition on the day of the crash, Bourgoin thought his life was in danger.
“The only time that he feels good — better — is when he’s under those blankets and thinks, ‘Oh, I’m safe here,’” Rosmarin said of Bourgoin and his time at the medical center earlier on the day of the fatal crash.
