Attorney for man accused in Belleville stabbing death may pursue insanity defense

Bailey Hamor’s attorney has asked for a psychologist to evaluate his mental state at the time he allegedly stabbed a family friend to death at his mother’s home in Belleville two years ago.

Before Hamor was charged with murder, he had undergone treatment for paranoid schizophrenia off and on for years, told people he was going to kill someone and at times begged for help with his mental illness, according to family members and police reports.

Hamor also spoke to friends and family of being pursued by Russian and German soldiers he believed were trying to “assassinate” him and a “demon” that was ordering him to kill.

The evaluation will help determine if the St. Clair County public defender’s office pursues a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, according to Chief Public Defender Cathy MacElroy.

“There’s a strong mental-health component to this offense,” said MacElroy, whose office has been representing Hamor since last fall, when his former private attorney, Joseph Reames, withdrew.

Hamor, 28, formerly of Belleville and East Alton, is being held in St. Clair County Jail on a $2 million bond. Last year, a 20th Judicial Circuit Court judge found him fit to stand trail on one count of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of James Goodwin, 33, of Belleville, on July 20, 2022.

Daniel Cuneo, a clinical psychologist in Belleville who specializes in forensic cases, is expected to conduct the court-ordered evaluation of Hamor before his next hearing on April 24.

If Cuneo feels Hamor was legally insane at the time of the stabbing, it’s possible the prosecution, and ultimately the judge, could accept a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, MacElroy said. Or defense attorneys could argue for that verdict at a jury or bench trial.

“(Such a determination) doesn’t mean it goes away,” MacElroy said. “It basically means that the person would be subject to treatment, and under the law, that period of treatment can’t exceed the maximum sentence had they been found guilty. The treatment can be inpatient or outpatient.”

Not guilty by reason of insanity is a plea in which a defendant admits committing a criminal act but claims he or she was mentally disturbed at the time and lacked the mental capacity to have intended to commit it.

That’s different than fitness to stand trial, which refers to a defendant’s ability to understand the nature and purpose of court proceedings and assist in his or her defense.

Hamor seeks ‘merciful’ sentence

Bailey Hamor lived with his mother, Cheri Koene, in Belleville and his father, Robert Hamor, in East Alton before his arrest. He worked for his father’s landscaping business, studied welding at Southwestern Illinois College and formerly played guitar in a rock band.

Bailey Hamor began struggling with mental illness around 2016, hearing “violent voices” in his head and feeling a lack of control for days at a time, he told the BND in a recent phone interview from jail.

“At first, I thought it was just a side effect of drugs because I was a long-haired musician, and we did a lot of drugs,” he said. “... But then I got clean and sober and went through recovery, the 12 steps and all of that, and I was still having (psychotic) episodes.”

Hamor said he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2018 while in Florida. Records show that his troubling behavior and, in some cases, homicidal thoughts resulted in dozens of contacts with police and several stays in hospital psychiatric units.

Hamor said he remembers parts of what happened on the night of Goodwin’s murder, but he doesn’t want to talk about it, and he tries to stay positive, calling incarceration “part of God’s plan for me.”

“In May of last year, I got put on this new medication called Geodon, and it literally changed my entire life,” Hamor said. “If I had been on this medication 20 months ago, I wouldn’t be in jail. But I don’t like to think like that. ... I’m at where I’m at right now, and I’ve got to accept it.”

Hamor said his daily life consists mostly of sleeping, eating, watching TV shows and movies in a common room and using a computer tablet to read books, including novels by Jack Reese and Tom Clancy and autobiographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant.

Hamor talks to his mother every day and his father two or three times a week by phone or video chat.

Koene has criticized the St. Clair County criminal-justice system due to what she characterizes as short-staffing at the jail and in the public defender’s office and lack of resources, particularly for inmates with mental illness. She argues that her son should be in a hospital.

“Jail is not a mental-health facility,” Koene said.

MacElroy asked the court in December to order a psychological evaluation of Hamor. The formal process is required because the county pays the cost for defendants represented by the public defender’s office.

Cuneo works at a discounted rate under county contract and, as a renowned psychologist who serves courts throughout southern Illinois, he’s busy, according to MacElroy. Private attorneys often arrange and pay for their own evaluations, which can speed up the process.

Hamor said his attorney is doing her best, given the heavy workload in the public defender’s office.

“I hope that I get my freedom again someday and continue on this medication,” he said. “I understand that they’re not just going to let me go because I’m mentally ill, but I hope I get a merciful, favorable sentence to a hospital.”

Two 911 calls in three hours

St. Clair County sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call from the home of Cheri Koene and her now ex-husband, Leonardus “Loek” Koene, at 1034 Golfview Court in an unincorporated Belleville subdivision, near Elmwood Golf Course, about 10 p.m. on July 19, 2022.

The Koenes expressed concern about Hamor’s behavior, but Millstadt EMS personnel determined that he wasn’t a danger to himself or others, and authorities left the scene.

The Koenes made a second call to 911 about three hours later to report that Goodwin had been killed. Police found him lying in a pool of blood in front of the three-car garage.

“The suspect (Hamor) was still on foot in the area, said to be armed with at least one knife, wearing fatigue camouflage clothing, body armor and a ballistic helmet with light,” Belleville’s police report stated.

A search team apprehended Hamor in a nearby wooded area about 1:30 a.m. on July 20, 2022.

The following month, a grand jury indicted Hamor on one count of first-degree murder, alleging that he stabbed Goodwin about the head and body with a knife, causing his death. Hamor pleaded not guilty.

Circuit Judge Zina Cruse issued an order in January 2023 finding that Hamor was fit to stand trial. She referenced her own observations of him, as well as an October 2022 report from Cuneo, who recommended that he be found fit.

“(Cuneo) opines that Defendant understands the nature and purpose of the proceedings against him and has the ability to assist in his own defense,” Cruse’s order stated.

Beyond the criminal case, Hamor is named as one of two defendants in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in December 2022 in 20th Judicial Circuit Court by Joseph Goodwin, brother of James Goodwin, who was friends with Cheri Koene.

The lawsuit alleges that Loek Koene was partly responsible for James Goodwin’s death because he allowed Hamor to stay at the home, where knives were accessible in the kitchen.

“Knowing that Bailey R. Hamor was suffering from mental problems with a high propensity for violence, Leonardus Koene allowed free reign of his home, and at the same time did nothing to secure obvious potentially deadly weapons present in the home,” the lawsuit states.