WOBURN — The man accused of murdering three elderly Newton residents is now competent to stand trial, a judge ruled nearly two years after the shocking and gruesome triple stabbing.
Christopher Ferguson was 41 years old in June 2023 when, according to prosecutors, he broke into a Newton home and killed Gilda D’Amore, 73, her husband, Bruno D’Amore, 74, and her mother, Lucia Arpino, 97, in an apparently random attack.
Ferguson was arrested one day after the killings and has been in custody since. But the case against him has languished because for most of that time evaluators have deemed him not mentally competent. But now, after treatment at Bridgewater State Hospital and a run of psychotropic medication, the case against him can now move ahead, Judge Patrick Haggan found in a hearing on Friday in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn.
Ferguson’s attorney Dmitry Lev did not dispute the findings from an evaluator at Bridgewater, but asked that Ferguson remain in the hospital rather than jail. Assistant District Attorney Ryan Rall agreed, noting that the last time Ferguson was sent to jail from the hospital, he “destabilized rather quickly’’ and was again deemed incompetent.
Haggan granted the request, and scheduled a trial for March 2026.
The question of mental competency is separate from the defense that someone is not criminally responsible because of mental illness, colloquially known as the insanity defense. Competency focuses on the present — whether someone charged with an offense is able to participate in their own defense, and whether they understand what’s happening. The insanity defense centers around someone’s state at the time of the alleged offense, and whether a mental-health condition was involved in the underlying crime.
Someone who’s currently competent can pursue the insanity defense. And, a declaration of incompetency doesn’t necessarily lead to an insanity defense.
Lev, Ferguson’s attorney, has not yet filed notice about whether he’ll seek an insanity defense.
According to court filings, Ferguson broke into the D’Amores’ home and killed all three people inside. The D’Amores had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary the day before.
Police said they found Arpino with a knife embedded in her body. They found another knife with red-brown stains in the kitchen. All three bodies had “severe apparent knife injuries’’ and blunt force trauma.
According to court records, investigators reviewed video footage from the morning of the killings that appears to show Ferguson outside around 5:20 a.m. without a shirt or shoes on and walking with a “staggering gait.’’
Ferguson had spoken openly about his struggle with bipolar disorder, and his former girlfriend told investigators Ferguson had been in a manic episode since February 2023, or roughly four months before the attack, according to court records.
In the weeks before the June 25, 2023, killings, other friends and neighbors said Ferguson, of Newton, seemed to be having difficulties, with one high school friend saying she had “noticed a marked difference in his behavior from the Chris I’d known the last seven years,’’ according to court records.
Ferguson’s own writings, court filings, and conversations with friends and neighbors over several years detail a man whose struggles and alleged crimes underscore weaknesses in the state’s mental health care system, which has buckled under surging demand unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic, and, some advocates say, needs an overhaul that gives families more power to help their relatives.
One of Ferguson’s neighbors previously told the Globe that Ferguson’s sister told her he was hospitalized for mental health issues earlier in June, but was back at home by June 20, even though the family wanted him to remain in the hospital longer.
Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.
