A 53-year-old man charged with strangling his roommate to death at Western State Hospital was acquitted after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity and could spend the rest of his life institutionalized, Pierce County Superior Court records show.
Jason Conrad Day faced first- and second-degree murder charges related to the killing of Stephen Kellogg, a 69-year-old fellow psychiatric patient who in October 2022 was discovered by hospital staff with a cord wrapped around his neck, bodily injuries and a deep bite wound on his wrist.
Day had informed a nurse that Kellogg was dead, leading to the victim being found in the room the two shared, according to charging papers.
Last month, the court accepted Day's not guilty plea by reason of insanity after a doctor who examined Day declared his belief that Day — who has a long history of mental illness, including paranoia — was legally insane when he committed the act, court records show.
"At the time of the commission of the offense, the defendant, as a result of mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his behavior as it related to the current charge," according to a Feb. 2 document signed by Day's attorney and a prosecutor.
Day, who court records showed was determined to be a substantial danger to himself or others and likely to commit more crimes unless kept institutionalized, could be committed to a state hospital for up to life due to the seriousness of the charges.
"I understand that I can be hospitalized for life," a declaration signed by Day said.
Day's legal counsel didn't immediately respond to an inquiry seeking comment Tuesday. Adam Faber, a spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, said in a statement that the office agreed, based on separate reports from two mental health professionals, that Day was not guilty by reason of insanity "due to his mental condition at the time of the incident."
Day had been at Western State Hospital for about a decade after previously pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to a first-degree assault charge in 2014 stemming from an incident in King County. Kellogg had been at the hospital since 1989 on a first-degree murder charge, the Department of Social and Health Services previously told The News Tribune.
The men were roommates for roughly three months.
On two occasions, Day was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in connection with Kellogg's killing before being determined to be competent in March 2023 following restorative treatment, court records show.
A doctor who evaluated Day on behalf of the defense reported that Day had a long history of bizarre and complex paranoid delusions, believing that government agencies and others were trying to hurt him, and that he had thought he was protecting himself from "dangerous entities" at the time of the act.
Day had been involved in several documented incidents at the psychiatric hospital over the past few years, The News Tribune previously reported, including biting and choking another patient.
DSHS told The News Tribune in 2022 that the attack on Kellogg occurred during a 15-minute window between hospital staff rounds. Both men were housed in a building for patients who had graduated from a higher-security unit due to good behavior and, as such, there were unlocked bedrooms and recreation areas on each floor, charging papers said. Their building, however, maintained a higher level of security than the hospital's general campus.
