North Haverhill
Travis Frink, of Warwick, R.I., will be committed for five years to the secure psychiatric unit at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord unless a judge rules otherwise, according to the terms of a plea agreement announced on Tuesday during his plea hearing in Grafton Superior Court.
He will be evaluated at the end of the five-year term, at which time he could be moved to a less-secure facility like New Hampshire Hospital. If he remains committed, he will be re-evaluated every five years, Associate Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin said.
The state charged Frink with murdering his 70-year-old mother, Pamela Ferriere, of Groton, N.H., on Sept. 12, 2017, during an incident that sent the hospital into lockdown and forced an evaluation of emergency procedures.
As part of the plea agreement reached on Tuesday, Frink admitted to the murder. However, he didn’t have the ability to form the mental status that must be present to be guilty of the felony-level crimes, two mental health professionals opined.
“Do you acknowledge that you committed the acts that are alleged in each indictment?” Judge Peter Bornstein asked Frink in the courtroom.
“I do, your honor,” he replied in a low voice.
Frink answered several questions in court and exhibited no obvious signs of mental illness.
If he is on his medications, which he said he was on Tuesday, Frink can behave normally, some of his family members said. He wasn’t on his medication on the day he shot his mother, he told police.
None of Frink’s relatives appeared in court on Tuesday, but Strelzin read aloud victim impact st atements from four of them.
When he is taking his medication, he may seem “docile” and “harmless,” wrote Russell Ide, who is Frink’s former father-in-law.
Even then, “I assure you he is not,” said Ide, calling Frink a “cold, calculating, insane person” who has put his three children “though hell.”
“How do you reconcile the fact he planned, drove three hours and premeditatedly shot his defenseless mother, yet a year later is ready to be found not guilty by reason of insanity?” Ide wrote. “I truly fear we will see a repeat of his actions.”
One of Frink’s teenage sons asked the judge to show no mercy on his father in terms of confinement.
The son described abuse, both when Frink was on and off his medication.
“I believe that my father should not be released from prison,” the son wrote. “He is not a mentally-stable person. … I never want to encounter him again.”
In a joint statement with her husband, Frink’s former mother-in-law, Dianne Stebbins, urged the court to be cautious when determining whether or not to release Frink.
“It is our fear that Travis Frink Sr., being a very intelligent and manipulative man, would appear to be ready for release when he is not ready,” the Stebbinses wrote.
Public defender Caroline Smith, who represented Frink, told the judge that when she first met her client, she believed he was “under the influence of a very active delusion.” He has since been taking his medication and is “somewhat in remission,” she said.
Strelzin laid out the facts of the case in court, and said it was the state’s belief, as well as two mental health experts’, that Frink’s actions were a “product of a mental illness.”
Frink entered the hospital carrying a small black bag around 1:15 p.m., signed in at the visitor’s desk and went to his mother’s fourth-floor hospital room. He asked his stepfather, Bob Ferriere, to leave the room for a minute. Shortly thereafter, Ferriere heard screams and watched Frink shoot Pamela Ferriere several times, Strelzin said.
Frink then “walked out like a zombie,” got into his car and tried to leave the hospital before police stopped him in traffic and took him into custody. During an interview, Frink told police he went to the hospital to “get relief” from his “abusive” mother, who he said was behind a scientific experiment and planted a device in his brain, “statements that really didn’t make much sense,” Strelzin said.
Bob Ferriere previously told The Associated Press that Frink had a long history of erratic and violent behavior that he blamed on post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in the military. Frink suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Frink has been hospitalized before and his diagnoses include bipolar disorder, with severe psychotic features, as well as schizoaffective disorder, according to court documents.
Bornstein ultimately accepted Frink’s pleas and ordered him confined to the secure psychiatric unit, saying Frink “suffers from a mental disease or defect and his release would create a substantial risk of harm to others.”
Strelzin called the resolution to the case “appropriate,” and said he understands how hard this type of case can be for the victims.
“We try to explain the process to the family, but it obviously is troubling for them that this happened and they know what can happen when the defendant is delusional and off his medication,” Strelzin said, adding that Frink wouldn’t be released without a judge’s order.
“The goal here is to protect the public and make sure the defendant gets the treatment he needs,” he said.
When considering Frink’s release in the future, health care professionals will look for a “significant period of stability,” Strelzin said, such as Frink’s ability to comply with his medication regimen.
Smith, Frink’s attorney, offered only a few words after the hearing: “It’s a very sad thing for everyone involved.”
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com.