[kamikazi89]

jesus is useless against schizophrenia: fact

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

By CAROL COMEGNO
Courier-Post Staff
MOUNT HOLLY

A Texas man pleaded innocent Monday in the bizarre beating death of an elderly immigrant from the Soviet Union who once had been a political prisoner in his homeland for anti-communist activity.

Brian White, 27, of Humble, Texas, entered the pleas to murder and unlawful possession of a weapon before Superior Court Judge Thomas Smith Jr. Defense lawyer Ed Lavelle handled the plea for his client, who did not speak.

White is accused of murdering a stranger, Michail Makarenko, 75, of Virginia by pummeling him with a rock after the victim refused to buy a religious CD from him. The incident took place at the James Fenimore Cooper Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike in Mount Laurel in March.

State police have said White, a disc jockey, appears to have mental health issues. The CD was a Christian recording.

Michael Mormando, an assistant Burlington County prosecutor, said in court Monday that he had received a state psychological report from the Ann Klein Forensic Center in West Trenton on White's current mental condition. He did not disclose its contents in court and declined to disclose it later.

The defense plans to hire its own mental health expert.

Makarenko and his interpreter were traveling to North Jersey and New York to visit family at the time of the incident, police said, and White was traveling north from Houston.

An associate of the victim, Lee Edwards of Washington, D.C., told the Courier-Post in March that Makarenko was imprisoned for 11 years in the Soviet Union as an anti-communist activist for displaying avant-garde art in a gallery.

White fled by car north on the turnpike and led police on an 70-mile chase before he was arrested as he turned onto Interstate 80. White's next court appearance is set for March 24.