Guthrie case continued for private psychiatric evaluation

The case against a Jackson man accused of assaulting his wife and shooting at police has been continued to July to give the defendant time to obtain a private psychiatric evaluation, a circuit judge said Monday.

Lawrence Guthrie, a former Marine and Gulf War veteran, has been charged with first-degree domestic assault, armed criminal action and three counts of first-degree assault or attempted assault on a law enforcement officer in connection with a June 2012 case in which he is accused of physically assaulting his estranged wife and exchanging gunfire with police before shooting himself in the head.

Online court records show that in September, Guthrie's attorney, Bryan Greaser, filed a notice of intent to rely on a defense of not guilty due to mental disease or defect.

Greaser has said Guthrie has no memory of the events of June 13, 2012, and "didn't appreciate the consequences" of his actions.

Guthrie's wife testified in August that he was undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the shooting.

In December, Cape Girardeau County Circuit Judge Benjamin Lewis ordered the director of the state Department of Mental Health to perform a forensic evaluation on Guthrie, which was completed in April, online court records show.

At a status hearing in April, Guthrie appeared in court looking disheveled, his face covered with stubble, his jaw swollen and misshapen and the left side of his mouth drooping open, the apparent effect of what court records indicate was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

At the time, Guthrie appeared alert but unsure of himself.

Guthrie was not in court Monday, but Lewis said the case had been continued to July 22 to allow time for a private psychiatric evaluation.

Lewis -- who approved a defense motion for the private evaluation in April -- said it had been arranged but not completed.

Earlier this year, Sgt. Shawn Price of the Missouri State Highway Patrol received the patrol's 2012 Valor Award for his work the day of Guthrie's arrest.

Capt. Tim Hull, director of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's public information and education division, said Price acted quickly and decisively to protect bystanders in Guthrie's neighborhood, sending bystanders home; directing a man in a nearby house to take his young son to the basement to avoid being hit by stray gunfire; and keeping an eye on the shooter through a window, firing a few rounds at the shooter and alerting other officers to his presence.

No officers or bystanders were injured, Hull said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

100 Court Street, Jackson, Mo.