Colorado murder victim’s husband sues hospital, says staff should have recognized suspect’s mental illness

The husband of a southern Colorado woman killed outside her home two years ago is suing the hospital that saw the suspect and released him the day before her death, alleging medical staff should have recognized he was a risk to others.

David Freilino allegedly shot and stabbed Bonnie Young, 64, to death outside her home in Gardner on April 5, 2023. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in May, meaning his attorneys aren’t contesting that he attacked Young, but argue that he isn’t legally responsible because his mental illness prevented him from telling right from wrong, according to The World Journal newspaper in Walsenburg.

The victim’s husband, Ronald Young, filed a lawsuit Friday in Pueblo District Court alleging that Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center failed to identify that Freilino had a severe mental illness and needed involuntary treatment to prevent him from harming others.

The lawsuit said deputies from the Huerfano County Sheriff’s Office responded to Freilino’s property, which adjoined the Youngs’, one day before the shooting. They transported him to Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center under an involuntary mental health, or M-1, hold.

Young alleged that Freilino exhibited “bizarre” behavior suggesting he may have experienced psychosis — hallucinations or delusions — but the hospital’s behavioral health contractor, Health Solutions, cleared him to go home the same day without performing a mental health evaluation.

Federal law requires hospitals to screen anyone who comes into their emergency departments, and to stabilize them for either transfer to another facility or discharge. Patients can choose to leave without being stabilized, unless they are at an imminent risk of harming themselves or others, which would qualify them for involuntary commitment.

“The health care providers at Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center… knew or should have known that Mr. Freilino required immediate and emergent, in-hospital, psychiatric care and treatment,” the lawsuit said.

Representatives for the hospital and Health Solutions said they couldn’t comment. The Huerfano County Sheriff’s Office referred questions to its attorney, who didn’t respond.

Law enforcement can bring someone in under an M-1 hold, but medical providers have to make their own judgment about whether the person is an imminent risk to themselves or others and discharge them if that’s no longer the case, said Vincent Atchity, president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado.

Symptoms of severe mental illness can look different from moment to moment, he said.

“‘Imminent’ is in some ways an impossible term,” he said. “The sheriff may have grabbed somebody when they’re agitated or psychotic, but by the time they get to a clinical setting, they’re calm.”

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