Man who allegedly tried to stab a flight attendant will undergo mental health evaluation, judge rules

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

A Massachusetts man accused of attempting to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon and open the plane’s emergency door during a flight from Los Angeles to Boston will remain in jail while he receives a psychiatric examination, a judge ruled.

Francisco Severo Torres, 33, shows signs of mental health issues and should be evaluated by a professional, Magistrate Judge Judith Dein said in federal court in Boston on Thursday. Once the exam is completed, a doctor will present the findings to the judge and she will decide whether he is competent to stand trial.

Prosecutors requested the mental health evaluation, pointing to what they characterized as a history of violent outbursts.

Defense attorneys for Torres objected to the evaluation, saying that their client did not believe he had any mental health issues. The two defense attorneys, Joshua Hanye and Allen Franco III, declined to speak to reporters after the hearing.

Prosecutor Elianna Nuzum said that Torres has repeatedly discussed harming himself and told investigators in an interview after his arrest Monday that “he would not die if stabbed in the heart or shot in the chest,” as he would come back to life.

Torres also allegedly “unprovoked, punched a guard repeatedly” at the jail where he is being held, Nuzum said.

Before US marshals brought Torres into the courtroom, they searched the room for anything that could theoretically pose a danger. One marshal, who said that the search was routine, noted they specifically look for pens or anything that can be used as a makeshift weapon in cases like Torres’.

When he entered the courtroom, Torres was dressed in a jail tan jumpsuit, wearing his long hair down, and restrained in handcuffs.

He told the judge that he believed “the father, son, and holy spirit” had told him to say something. Dein advised Torres not to speak, to which he responded: “Alright, it’s on you.”

Torres faces one charge of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon. He allegedly tried to stab the flight attendant three times with the broken spoon. He has not entered a formal plea.

According to prosecutors, Torres’ violent outburst occurred on a flight from Los Angeles to Boston. Flight attendants noticed that a door in the plane had been disarmed, prosecutors say, and that an emergency lever on the door also had been disarmed.

A flight attendant confronted Torres about the door and alerted the plane’s captain that they believed Torres posed a threat, prosecutors say.

Video recorded by others on the plane show Torres shouting at passengers — saying at one point he would “kill every man on this plane” — before getting out of his seat and approaching two flight attendants who were standing in the aisle.

Torres moved slowly down the aisle at first, video shows, extending one hand out in front of him and clasping a metal object close to his chest in the other.

Video shows that Torres then rushed at one of the flight attendants with the metal object, which he later told investigators was the handle of a metal spoon that he had broken in half in the airplane’s bathroom.

At the same time, Torres shouted that he was “taking over this plane,” video shows.

Torres was then tackled by other passengers and was immediately taken into custody after the flight landed.

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