Millet Harrison thanked Judge Larry Gist for Gist's decision to let Harrison out of Rusk State Hospital after 20 years at the mental institution. Harrison was sent there shortly after killing his mother, 67-year-old Louise Harrison, on February 1, 1994.
In an exclusive phone interview with 12News, Millet Harrison said, "I thank the judge for being fair and honest." The 65-year-old Beaumont man stabbed his mother, then proceeded to mutilate and dismember her. A Jefferson County jury found Harrison not guilty by reason of insanity, but he still lost his freedom, and was sent to Rusk.
Diane Guidry is Harrison's niece, and she's been fighting for her uncle's freedom from Rusk all these years. She told 12News, "He himself was a victim. Millet was taken off of medication due to a doctor, his doctor telling him that he was going to take him off his medication and try a new drug."
Guidry says that drug was a sleeping medication, not an anti-psychotic medicine. At the time of his mother's death, Harrison did not have a criminal record. He was being treated for paranoid schizophrenia.
Doug Barlow is Harrison's lawyer, and he said Harrison was a model patient at Rusk State Hospital, and he said, "There simply wasn't any evidence to justify under the law holding him any longer."
Barlow told us, "All of the Rusk state officials, the healthcare providers that are trained in that area have all universally recommended this outpatient treatment, he's the top patient on their list for outpatient treatment."
Doctors treating Harrison have testified that he has been compliant taking his anti-psychotic medication.
Judge Gist is waiting for a supervision plan from the outpatient treatment facility in Beaumont, before he signs the order releasing Harrison from Rusk, that could be two weeks away.
Harrison told us, "I'm excited, I'm glad to finally be getting out of this place." Harrison went on to tell us, "I think it's been a long time in coming, I'm glad about it."
