Psychologist tells about risk factors

McKinney's upbringing made it difficult for him to accept responsibility, a psychologist said.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Jermaine McKinney was dealt "a bad deck of cards" when he was born to dysfunctional parents, and it didn't get better as he grew into a young man on Youngstown's streets, a forensic psychologist told a jury Friday.
"This explains a lot about this case but doesn't excuse anything," said Dr. Jim Eisenberg, a professor of psychology at Lake Erie College in Painesville, during the final day of testimony in the mitigation phase of McKinney's murder trial.
Dr. Eisenberg, a psychologist for 30 years who has written a book on forensic pathology, was asked by the defense to testify. He gathered information from interviews with McKinney and his family members and documents from police agencies, counselors and prison officials.
Eisenberg also cited U.S. Department of Justice research that identifies risk factors that led to criminal behavior, such as economic deprivation, access to guns and drugs and racial prejudice. "The larger the number of risk factors you have, the greater the likelihood of criminal behaviors," he said.
Eisenberg said results of a standardized test McKinney took in the months just before he killed Wanda Rollyson and Rebecca Cliburn in Rollyson's Newton Township home Dec. 21, 2005, showed the 26-year-old Youngstown man has major depressive disorder. "I think this is a young man who has had this as a chronic condition his whole lifetime," Eisenberg said.
The test results also showed that he had high levels of distrustful and antisocial behavior.
He is bright
Eisenberg said McKinney, convicted of the murders Nov. 3, is one of the smartest of 200 defendants he has ever examined. "He's a very bright individual," Eisenberg said, citing McKinney's near-B average while graduating from Watkins Christian Academy in Youngstown and attending Warren Business College for one semester.
"One wonders why he didn't just stay in school," Eisenberg said. "He's making a lot of money selling drugs. It's interesting. It's exciting. At that point it was too little too late. He had so many moves in his life, so many transitions. He chose on his own to continue in the criminal area rather than pursue college."
Eisenberg said circumstances of McKinney's home life -- which family members testified to Thursday in great detail -- left him vulnerable to a life of crime and violence, he said.
About his life
In July 1986, when McKinney is 6, both parents are cocaine users, and the house they live in has no running water.
When he was 7, McKinney's mother, Cynthia McKinney, tells Mahoning County Children Services she cannot care for him, so he is put into foster care. A neighbor takes him for a year until Cynthia McKinney decides to take him to Texas with her.
By 8 or so, he helps his mom commit robberies.
By 10, he has his first sexual experience with a friend of his mother's. Also, he has started using drugs such as acid, PCP and Ecstasy.
At 14, he leaves Texas, and his mother doesn't attempt to contact him for many years.
His positive role models moved away; peers were engaging in delinquency and violence.
The results were 10 criminal convictions as a juvenile and adult, such as possession of drugs, carrying a concealed weapon and trafficking in cocaine; and four attempted suicides.
Someone with the damaging factors caused by McKinney's background is less likely to accept responsibility for behavior, Eisenberg said. The result is criminal behavior and drug abuse, he said.
Life on streets
He cited statistics from 1996 that he says indicate the type of life "on the streets" McKinney was exposed to while he was 16: Youngstown had 61 murders, 61 rapes, 410 robberies, 824 assaults and 1,769 burglaries.
Jurors will hear closing arguments Monday and possibly an unsworn statement from McKinney, not subject to cross examination. Afterward, the jury must decide his punishment: death, life in prison with no parole, or life in prison with possibility of parole after 25 or 30 years. If the jury cannot reach a verdict Monday night, it will be housed in a local motel and brought back Tuesday morning to continue deliberations.
runyan@vindy.com