Reports on mental health in stabbing case not done

By Ed White Associated Press FLINT (AP) -- Lawyers considering an insanity defense in a string of fatal stabbings in the Flint area said last Thursday they're still waiting for a report from a mental-health expert. Elias Abuelazam is facing separate trials in three slayings and six knife attacks in which the victims survived last summer. He has been examined by the prosecution's mental-health expert, but a second exam arranged by the defense team is not finished, lawyer Brian Morley told a Genesee County judge. Judge Judith Fullerton held a brief hearing and told both sides to return on May 26. There has been no public disclosure about the conclusions of the prosecution's expert. The report is sealed. Abuelazam was not in the courtroom but watched the hearing in jail over a video feed. No trial dates have been set, although county Prosecutor David Leyton told The Associated Press that the first murder trial likely would involve one of the two cases with DNA evidence. Police say blood matching the DNA of Arnold Minor and Frank Kellybrew was found on Abuelazam's shoelace or in his vehicle after his arrest last August. Abuelazam's lawyers have requested that the first trial be moved out of Genesee County because of intense news coverage about the hunt for a serial stabber. The judge said last Thursday she's not in favor. Leyton told the AP he's not offering any plea bargains to the defense but "my door's always open." Abuelazam was captured in Atlanta while trying to fly to Israel, his native country. Separately, he faces a charge of attempted murder in a similar knife attack in Toledo, Ohio. Published: Mon, Apr 25, 2011