Kolodziej Witness Concludes Testimony : Trials: A psychologist tells the court that the defendant was having a psychotic episode when he killed Velasta Johnson.

Kevin Kolodziej, suffering schizophrenia and paranoia, was having a psychotic episode when he killed a 90-year-old Ventura woman, a psychologist testified Wednesday.

“He was trying to take care of some basic physiological needs,” said Reid Meloy, a clinical psychologist. After leaving a Ventura hospital in pajamas that sunny January morning, Kolodziej trudged from house to house, Meloy said, desperately seeking a shower.

When he entered the back door of Velasta Johnson’s yellow cement-block house, “he knew he should not be in the home,” Meloy said. “He was concerned about who was there and what they might do to him.”

So, Meloy said, when Kolodziej saw a knife on the kitchen counter, his deranged mind told him to pick it up--not to hurt anyone, but to protect himself and to prevent someone from using it on him.

When Kolodziej encountered Johnson and stabbed her in the heart, Meloy said, he saw her as “a malevolent object, a perceived threat to him.”

Meloy was the first of at least four psychological witnesses for the defense to conclude his testimony in Ventura County Superior Court, where the 25-year-old Kolodziej is on trial for murder and burglary. Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris is then expected to put on his own psychiatrist to rebut the defense experts’ testimony.

In this first phase of the trial, the issue to be determined is what crimes, if any, Kolodziej has committed. He admits killing Johnson, but if there was also a burglary, the homicide would be first-degree murder. If not, it may be ruled second-degree murder or some form of manslaughter.

When those issues are resolved by Judge James M. McNally--who is hearing the case without a jury--the next phase of the trial will determine another issue: whether Kolodziej is not guilty by reason of insanity.

The psychological testimony is crucial in both parts of the trial, attorneys said.

In the trial’s first phase, the experts will help McNally determine whether Kolodziej (pronounced kuh-LOH-jee) had the mental ability to form the intent that is a key element of both burglary and murder.

Assuming the trial reaches the second phase, the expert testimony will be used to decide whether the case meets the legal standard for an insanity defense. To do that, they must prove that Kolodziej’s mental disorder was so great that he did not understand the nature of his actions, or did not realize that they were wrong.

As part of his evaluation, Meloy said, he spent eight hours with Kolodziej and administered several psychological tests. Meloy is the author of a book on diagnosing mental illness and once headed the mental unit at the San Diego County Jail.

He said he found the defendant to have the emotional maturity of a 14- or 15-year-old, his development stopped by the onset of schizophrenia during late adolescence.

His schizophrenia led to Kolodziej’s confinement at mental hospitals in his native Virginia and in Hawaii, Meloy said, although in both instances Kolodziej left the hospitals before the condition could be diagnosed. His several attempts at suicide and self-mutilation fit the pattern of schizophrenics, Meloy added.

Kolodziej, wearing a pink and white striped shirt, reacted only occasionally as the most intimate aspects of his mental health were discussed. Several times, he folded his arms on the defense table and nestled his head on them. A few times, he looked back at his mother, who testified last week about his mental deterioration in recent years.

Meloy said Kolodziej has no history of violent crimes and “has a developed conscience.” As for Kolodziej’s views on killing, the psychologist said, “he clearly has strong feelings and realizes it is wrong.”

And, Meloy said, he is capable of feeling remorse. “He is regretful that she died.”