Judges send Maoz for psychiatric testing

Daniel Maoz, a 28-year-old lawyer accused of murdering his parents last August, will undergo psychiatric testing on Monday, after the judges hearing his case in the Jerusalem District Court requested that he do so.

Maoz’s lawyer, David Barhoom, said his client was not opposed to the psychiatric testing. Police have accused Maoz of stabbing his parents, Nurit and Noah Maoz, to death with a kitchen knife in their home in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood on August 11 in an attempt to get an inheritance to pay off massive gambling debts. He was arrested a month after the murders, but in a surprising move, he accused his twin brother, Nir, of carrying out the murders. The identical twins share DNA, which was found at the site of the murder.

In state prosecutor Yuval Kaplinsky’s closing arguments on June 10, he focused on Maoz’s rapidly evolving versions of the events during police investigations, in which he first claimed to have been in Tel Aviv during the murders, then admitted he had been in Jerusalem, then admitted he had been at home during the murders but didn’t know the murderer’s identity, and then accused his twin of the murder. Kaplinsky questioned Maoz’s mental health and suggested possible schizophrenic tendencies.

Despite the gory nature of the crimes, Maoz’s mental health was never discussed as an issue during the lengthy court proceedings, and he appeared calm and collected while testifying over the past few months.

Barhoom said that Maoz had never opposed psychiatric testing.

“It didn’t come up, it wasn’t a psychiatric issue,” he said on Thursday.

“On the surface, he didn’t seem problematic, and neither [the defense nor the prosecution] thought he was mentally ill.”

However, Maoz decided to honor the judge’s request that he undergo an evaluation.

On Monday, following Barhoom’s closing arguments in the case, Maoz will be transferred to a psychiatric evaluation unit where he will undergo testing for at least a week. The judges will receive results of the test during the summer and will take that into consideration while deciding on a verdict. The verdict is expected in September or October, after the summer recess.