Lawyers for a man accused of hammering his girlfriend to death in her Mount Vernon apartment are seeking a psychiatric examination in the case.
There was no elaboration as to what Joveair Brice’s mental health issues might be at his arraignment in Westchester County Court on Thursday, April 30.
He pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the killing last month of Lisa Grier, a New York City teaching assistant.
Police on the afternoon of March 21 found Grier’s body in her apartment at 324 East Fourth Street when they went on a welfare check after she hadn’t shown up as planned to meet friends.
Police said she had been beaten with a hammer. Authorities believe Grier was killed sometime between 6 pm the previous night and early afternoon March 21.
Brice was arrested later that night in Manhattan after allegedly carjacking a taxi cab in midtown Manhattan and crashing into cars including a patrol car in lower Manhattan.
Westchester Judge George Fufidio ordered the psychiatric examination – to determine whether Brice has a mental disease or defect that makes him unable to understand the charges against him and assist in his defense – at the request of lawyers Pamela Itzkowitch and Joseph Marciano.
They declined to comment afterwards.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Boyfriend accused of Mount Vernon woman hammer death pleads not guilty
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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