Jail-Murder Defendant Rambled About Future With PTL and CIA, Court Told

Jerry Thomas Pick, an Orange County Jail inmate accused of killing two cell mates, believes that he is being recruited by the CIA to become “king of oil” in Saudi Arabia and is destined to take over the scandal-plagued PTL religious ministry, a psychologist testified Monday.

The testimony by Dr. Martha L. Rogers, a court-appointed forensic psychologist from Fullerton, came as a hearing on Pick’s mental competency entered its second week before Superior Court Judge Leonard H. McBride.

Pick, a 24-year-old transient, is accused of the Jan. 17 beating death of John Franklin Wilcox and the Jan. 31 strangulation of a second inmate, Arthur Oviedo. Pick had been in jail awaiting trial for attempted robbery in connection with a Jan. 4 purse-snatching in Garden Grove, authorities have said. Pick is charged with murder in both cases.

If convicted of multiple first-degree murder, Pick could be sentenced to life without parole.

Milton C. Grimes, Pick’s attorney, says his client is incompetent to stand trial and is suffering from countless delusions, possibly a result of a head injury suffered in a 1981 car crash in Ohio.

Gets Hostile

Pick, Rogers testified, gets hostile when his case is mentioned and rambles about threats and intimidation from unknown CIA agents. Pick told Rogers that he often has personal conversations with God and at one time was told by the CIA that he would become “king of oil” in Saudi Arabia.

Prosecutors contend that Pick’s alleged delusions are merely a legal maneuver to avoid having to stand trial in the deaths of Wilcox and Oviedo, both of whom died while sharing a jail cell with Pick.

The death of Wilcox, who was 71, was at first ruled to be of natural causes. It was not until Oviedo died that Pick was suspected in the death of Wilcox and a new autopsy was ordered on Wilcox’s body.

In her testimony Monday, Rogers reviewed her interviews with Pick and said they had been filled with wild statements about CIA plots, conspiracies and his intention to team up with television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart to take over the PTL ministry formerly headed by Jim and Tammy Bakker.

She also said Pick believes that he was personally responsible for the Iran-Contra scandal.

Grandiose Idea

“He had the grandiose idea that because he had this power, they had to shift the attention away from him” and on to the Iran scandal, Rogers said.

When asked by Grimes if she felt Pick was sincere or was faking it, Rogers replied: “I think he believes it. He’s fairly intense and appears to believe it when he talks about it. “In this case he doesn’t want to be seen as mentally ill. He doesn’t want to be seen as crazy.”

Grimes told the jury that Pick has make it impossible to build a credible defense by refusing to cooperate. During one attempt to hold a strategy session Oct. 13, Grimes said, Pick started ranting and raving, then spit on him.

In testimony last week, Pick insulted both his attorney and Rogers, at one time telling Grimes, “I bet you that I’m more competent than you are.” Pick also called Rogers a “cutthroat psychiatrist.”

“If you go to trial like that, this kid would be unjustly punished for something he may or may not have done,” Grimes said during a break in the hearing. “Anytime you broach the subject of his defense, he gets hostile and brings up the CIA. That’s as far as you can get with him.”

In order for Pick to be declared incompetent to stand trial, Grimes must prove that Pick not only has a mental disorder but also does not understand the nature of the charges against him and is unable to help his attorney prepare a defense.

In a court-ordered evaluation conducted earlier this year, Rogers concluded that Pick was competent to stand trial. But after reviewing new evidence and data from his past, the Fullerton psychologist now is not so sure.

“I think his intellectual abilities are relatively intact,” Rogers said. “But he is a very volatile, difficult person who easily becomes so aroused that you can’t reason with him . . . and (he) often misinterprets what you’re trying to do to help him.”

Rogers said it appears that Pick suffered brain injuries in the 1981 auto accident.