Dom Soto did not believe it either, at first.
“At the time he said that, it sounded pretty flaky to me,” the attorney said of the psychiatrist’s theory. “You know, mold made you do this?”
Soto now represents Justin Michael Senia on charges of attempted murder and shooting into buildings and vehicles, and he has served notice that his client intends to assert a mental disease or defect defense — one built in part on what a defense-hired psychiatrist called mycotoxin-induced psychosis.
It appears to be a defense without precedent in Alabama criminal court.
What Happened on Tuscaloosa Street
On the morning of Jan. 4, neighbors called Mobile police about gunfire in the 100 block of Tuscaloosa Street.
Bullets struck a neighboring house and Ashland Place Health and Rehabilitation across the street. Police said officers arriving at the scene faced dozens of shots fired from inside the home.
Lt. Lorenzo Matthews was hit directly in the abdomen. According to police, he still has not been able to return to work.
The Defense’s Account
A court filing on behalf of Senia, 41, quotes his conversation with the defense psychiatrist after his arrest.
He described a deterioration that began after he and Arielle Joanna Perreault, 34, his common-law wife, moved to Mobile. Things went well for a few months, he said.
“Then a lot of really weird things started to happen,” he told the psychiatrist.
He reported severe headaches, panic attacks and memory problems, along with sounds he could not account for — including what he said sounded like babies being tortured.
“Then, it started to feel like we were getting attacked by something,” Senia said. “I know it sounds crazy, but I kept feeling like I was getting shocked. Arielle did, too. We felt like we were living in a torture chamber.”
He said he became convinced that the government or someone was watching him, and described seeing black helicopters following him. He traced that to November, during what he believes was his last trip outside the house — a day trip to Dothan with Perreault.
“I asked my wife if she could see ’em, and she said that she did,” he said. “So, I don’t think they were hallucinations, but at this point I don’t really know anymore.”
Eventually, according to the filing, Senia boarded up the house and stopped leaving it entirely, having groceries delivered instead.
He told the psychiatrist that on the morning of Jan. 4, he and Perreault were trying to provoke police into killing them.
“It was kind of a Hail Mary, a last-ditch effort to stop us from being tortured for the next several decades,” he said.
How the Defense Got Here
Soto said Senia’s parents described their son’s behavior as uncharacteristic. He said his client was not taking prescribed medication at the time because he could not afford it.
Senia is on the medication now at Mobile County Metro Jail, Soto said, and appears lucid, without the headaches and panic attacks.
Soto said he investigated after the psychiatrist raised the theory.
“Then I did some studying, and it’s a thing,” he said. “I’ve filed this fairly extensive memo because I wanted someone to not just discount it as some flaky criminal defense thing, you know, ’cause I was dubious at first.”
Familiar in Civil Court, Unfamiliar in Criminal Court
Toxic mold litigation is not unusual on the civil side. Tenants sue landlords over mold exposure with some regularity, and those cases turn on habitability, property damage and personal injury claims.
A search of court records failed to turn up a criminal case in which a defendant used mold as a defense.
The distinction matters legally. A civil mold claim asks whether a landlord failed a duty and whether exposure caused harm. A criminal insanity or mental-defect defense asks a different question entirely: whether, at the time of the offense, the defendant could appreciate the nature of his conduct or its wrongfulness.
Under Alabama law, that is the defendant’s burden to prove, and it is a demanding one.
The Prosecution’s Response
Mobile County Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Susman said prosecutors reject the argument.
“I’ve never heard anyone blame shots fired on mold before, so that’s a new one for me,” Susman said. “… But the defense is gonna file whatever it’s gonna file, and we will continue to follow the law and enforce it.”
Two Evaluations Ordered
Mobile County Circuit Judge Michael Windom ordered a mental evaluation of Senia this week.
On Friday, Windom agreed to allow Perreault to change her plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, and ordered the Alabama Department of Mental Health to determine whether she is competent to stand trial.
Those are two separate legal questions that are frequently confused. Competency concerns whether a defendant can understand the proceedings and assist in their own defense right now. An insanity plea concerns the defendant’s state at the time of the alleged offense. A defendant can be competent to stand trial and still argue insanity — and a finding on one does not resolve the other.
What Comes Next
The evaluations will shape the case. If Senia’s mental-defect notice survives, the defense will need expert testimony establishing both exposure and its effect, and prosecutors will be entitled to their own examination.
Senia is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Lt. Matthews, meanwhile, remains unable to return to duty eight months after being shot.