James Pietragallo

Lock this kid up forever.

That's what the lawyer's saying.

You know, he obviously should be in some sort of psychological issue or some sort of setting.

He needs help.

They end up diagnosing him as a schizophrenic, schizophrenia.

So he remains at Bridgewater to stabilize, and his attorney said he's smart but volatile.

He's hard to deal with.

So April 18, 2018 is his superior court arraignment.

When asked how he pleads in the charge of killing his grandparents and Bertha May, he says flatly, not guilty.

When asked about his mother, he starts kind of holding back tears and choking and his voice is breaking.

He says not guilty.

So his father and his brother are both there supporting him.

His lawyer said at the end of the day, I think mental illness will be the explanation for this event.

An insanity defense, not guilty by reason of mental defect.

So he said he also said, oh, the D.A.

told everybody that.

I would describe the scene as mildly as horrific.

That's the most mild I can put it.

So the trial set for May 2019, and then it gets postponed for early 2020, and then COVID happens.

So he's transferred from the Bridgewater State Hospital to the Middlesex County Jail.