A Gillette, Wyoming, man accused of slitting his mother’s throat to defend himself from distant attic people has been found sane enough to stand trial.
Scott Lyle Patenaude, 32, is scheduled for a Thursday arraignment in Campbell County District Court. His case rose to the felony-level court July 29, after Gillette Circuit Court Judge Wendy Bartlett ruled he is sane enough to face prosecution for attempted second-degree murder.
The case stems from claims Patenaude spontaneously slit his mother’s throat on May 25, while standing behind her in their home on Hannum Road in Gillette.
Bartlett based her finding on a report Dr. Paul Murdock compiled on behalf of the Wyoming State Hospital.
Patenaude, his defense counsel and the state did not contest the finding, and none of them asked for a second evaluation.
Patenaude’s mother, who survived the alleged attack, did not immediately respond Monday to a Cowboy State Daily message requesting comment.
Intelligent Tapping
An evidentiary affidavit filed in Patenaude’s case says that he and his mother had been arguing in her trailer house the evening of May 25. He told police she was “mentally aggressive” toward him.
He retrieved a razor blade he’d bought at the store a day or more prior, lifted his mother’s chin and cut her neck from behind in a left-to-right motion, the affidavit alleges.
He then walked outside to smoke a cigarette and wait for police, while his mother called 911 to report that her son had just slit her throat and she was “bleeding out,” the document relates from interviews and dispatch records.
She called 911 a second time, telling dispatch to “tell my parents and my daughter that I love them.”
Police arrived to find Patenaude attempting to flee out the back door, the document says. He was arrested and interviewed.
During his interview, he reportedly said he had an infected tooth that kept him from sleeping, loud trucks roared along the road and woke him, as did an “intelligent tapping” in the attic.
He later said he cut his mother’s throat because he was defending himself from the people in the attic — an attic in his grandfather’s house on a different part of the property, says the document.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
