Cannibal frat boy could soon be freed from mental health facility

Cannibal frat boy, 25, who randomly killed Florida couple and chewed man’s face off could be freed within MONTHS from mental health facility, victims’ family claim

• Austin Harrouff, 25, claimed he’d been fleeing a demon-like figure when he killed John Stevens, 59, and his wife Michelle Mishcon, 53 in 2016
• Family members of the victim have said that the prosecution said that Harrouff could be freed within six months of entering a mental health facility
• Harrouff has been jailed since the incident, but this week was deemed not guilty by reason of insanity and will be sent to a mental rehabilitation hospital
• Mishcon’s sister, Cindy, claimed that prosecutors had told them Harrouff could get out of a mental rehabilitation hospital within six to 12 months of entering
• The grisly slayings shocked the country in after Harrouff was found gnawing on the face of Stevens who was covered in blood and laying on the floor 

A Florida frat boy who murdered a married couple and chewed the face of one of his victims could be ‘freed within six months of entering a mental health facility,’ after the ‘cannibal’ college student was deemed not guilty by reason of insanity this week.

Austin Harrouff, 25, claimed he had been fleeing a demon-like figure when he ran into a Tequesta home and attacked John Stevens, 59, and his wife Michelle Mishcon, 53, spitting out a piece of flesh when deputies arrived and finally subdued him.

At the time of the murders, Harrouff was 19 and had been found in the garage of the home with a machete, gnawing at Stevens face as he lay dying and covered in blood.

Mishcon’s sisters, Cindy, told the New York Post that prosecutors had told them Harrouff could get out of a mental rehabilitation hospital in a matter of months after Monday’s controversial plea deal was announced.

‘They told us that he’ll now go to some sort of mental hospital, but it’s not a place where people are held for long. You go, you get treated, you get out.’

DailyMail.com spoke to Assistant State Attorney Anastasia Norman who worked alongside Brandon White on the case – who said the prosecution ‘could not know for sure when a person is released’ from a facility. 

Austin Harrouff, 25, was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the 2016 murders of John Stevens, 59, and his wife Michelle Mishcon, 53, at their home in Florida

Mishcon and Stevens were murdered in their garage in August 2016 when Harrouff allegeldy entered a mental episode and thought he was ‘half dog, half man’

Mishcon’s sisters, Cindy, said that prosecutors had told them Harrouff could get out of a mental rehabilitation hospital within six to 12 months of being placed in there 

‘We do not know how long he’ll be in there, that is completely out of our hands and is up to doctors at the facility,’ she said. 

When asked about the treatment plan for Harrouff Norman said that prosecutors ‘don’t get involved in that aspect.’

‘What I can say is that the judge will maintain jurisdiction over the case and a hearing will be held before a judge who will have to approve [Harrouf’s] release,’ she said.

‘[Harrouf] could be approved to be released or will join a step-down-program which was described as – he may remain in secured confinement and then put into a dorm in the facility before being released into the community.

Norman added that ‘no facilities in the state are designed for long term confinement,’ she said.

‘As I said, a doctor will determine whether it is appropriate to release [Harrouf] and they will contact the judge and attorney’s,’ she said.

‘We have people who have been in there for years and others who have been turned out pretty quickly.’

Norman said the 6 – 12 month figure could have come from psychologist’s working with prosecutors who said there have been instances in the past when that has been the timeframe. 

She said staffers from the Martin County State Attorney’s Office gave family members of the victims a rough release window of between six to 12 months.

DailyMail.com have contacted Harrouf’s attorney Nicole L. King for comment.

Harrouff has been jailed since the incident, but this week was deemed not guilty by reason of insanity and will be sent to a mental rehabilitation hospital 

Evidence was provided to the court to determine Harrouff’s mental state and on Monday he was deemed not guilty by reason of insanity

The grisly slayings shocked the country in 2016 after it emerged Harrouff had left a bloody mess across the couple’s driveway and garage.

Sheriff’s deputies described how the college student had been growling like a dog and had abnormal strength, with several deputies needing to pull him off Stevens at the time of the horrific act.

Harrouff said he could not remember the details of the murders, but believed God and demons were talking to him as he attacked the couple. He and his parents claim that he was mentally ill at the time of the incident.

Families of the victims angrily rejected this defense, arguing Harrouff was a drug addict who was well aware of what he was doing when he committed the crime.

He was initially accused of committing the killings while high on synthetic drugs flakka and bath salts. But a subsequent toxicology report found only traces of marijuana and prescription drugs in Harrouff’s system.

In court on Monday, several family members presented victim impact statements directed at Harouff, his family, the defense team, and prosecutors.

Cindy Mishcon, who is also an attorney, laid out a methodical case of why she does not believe that Harrouff was insane when the killings occurred.

Harrouff is pictured here being taken in custody after the murders. He begged deputies to kill him after they pulled him off John Stevens and told them ‘I ate something bad’ 

‘You can’t even look at me?’ she asked Harrouff, who was sitting at the defense table, wearing a red and white striped prison uniform and glasses.

She said she had begun writing her victim impact statement when she was ‘naive enough’ to think there would be justice.

Cindy told the court that reality set in for her as she listened to tapes of Harrouff’s jailhouse phone calls with family members and the reading of pages of text messages in the year prior to the killings, which were part of the court record.

The text messages with his friends outlined the life of a student who was smoking marijuana, taking other drugs and abusing alcohol during the year before killing the couple.

She said she realized ‘you don’t care about anyone but yourself’ and that ‘the only victim you and your family see is you, and the Harrouff name.’

‘Is it really so hard for you to understand that you are a cold-blooded murderer and not a victim,’ she asked.

‘I ask myself, why are we here today?’ she said. ‘Why is there no trial? Why is my family being denied justice?’

Other family members echoed her sentiments.

‘I didn’t really know you could brutally murder two people, attempt to kill another, and not even have a trial,’ Jodi Bruce, another sister of Mishcon, said.

‘That was news to me.’

Two years after entering a not guilty plea on the grounds of insanity in 2020 it was accepted by Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer in Martin County, Florida on Monday.

His ruling meant that Harrouff would be involuntarily committed into the custody of the Department of Children and Families for placement in a secured mental health facility.

 Harrouff said he could not remember the details of the murders, but believed God and demons were talking to him as he attacked Mishcon and Stevens

Harrouff seen transported by detectives to the Martin County Jail from St. Mary’s Hospital in 2016

‘I didn’t really know you could brutally murder two people, attempt to kill another, and not even have a trial,’ Jodi Bruce, another sister of Mishcon, said during the first and last day of the murder trial on Monday

Two mental health experts, one hired by the defense and another by prosecutors, examined Harrouff and found he suffered an acute psychotic episode during the attack, and couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong.

The decision was made during the first and final day of a trial that was expected to last three weeks.

Harrouff was a 19-year-old student at Florida State University when he killed the couple and stabbed a neighbor that came to help them, prosecutors say.

Bauer heard through documents filed in the court that in 2016 Harrouff entered a psychotic episode that left him thinking he was ‘half-dog, half-man’ when he attacked the couple near his Florida home.

Harrouff’s attack made national headlines for its extreme brutality. He had been out for dinner at a restaurant with his father when he began acting erratically and left.

He then walked two miles to his mother’s house where he mixed cooking oil with parmesan and attempted to drink it before his mother took him back to the restaurant.

After another altercation with his father, restaurant security footage showed Harrouff calmly leaving the restaurant 45 minutes before the attack.

He then walked four miles toward the Stevens’ home where he entered their open garage and used tools, which belonged to his victims, to murder them.

Harrouff told TV psychiatrist Dr Phil he was escaping a demon he called Daniel and that he had only vague recollections of the killings.

He said he encountered Mishcon in the couple’s garage. She screamed, and ‘then it’s a blur,’ he said at the time.

‘I don’t remember what she said – I just remember being yelled at.’

The home of neighbor Jeffrey Fisher who was allegedly stabbed as he tried to save the couple

A wine bottle opener retrieved from the scene of the Stevens’ murder in August 2016

Workers at the crime scene remove furniture from garage where Mishcon and Stevens were found

A knife from the scene of the brutal murders was presented as evidence

He said he grabbed a machete but doesn’t remember why he killed her and her husband. He drank a range of additional chemicals in the couple’s garage that caused him critical injuries.

When police arrived at the house, they found the couple dead and Harrouff biting at Stevens face. Police said that they were threatening Harrouff with a dog, tasing him, and kicking him in the head to get him to stop.

In his judgment, Bauer said that two mental health experts, one hired by the state and one for the defense had concluded Harrouff was not sane when he killed the couple.

Bauer noted that the Harrouff defense team and state prosecutors ‘agreed to this particular outcome, I’m sure based upon all the facts and circumstances that they had.

‘It’s a sad case, it’s an awful case,’ Bauer said.

‘But when it all gets said and done, the state and the defense have made the determination that mental intent was not formulated. It wasn’t there and therefore the defendant is technically not guilty by reason of insanity.’

Dr. Ohillipo Resnick, an expert for the defense, determined in 2019 that Harrouff was ‘actively psychotic,’ because he kept on attacking even when cops tased him and kicked him multiple times in the head.

Resnick claimed that the defendant suffered from ‘clinical lycanthropy,’ which involves believing you are a dog and explained Harrouff’s dog-like behavior.

If found guilty, Harrouff would have been sentenced to life in prison without parole as prosecutors had already chosen not to pursue the death penalty.

This comes almost two years after Harrouff entered his not guilty plea back in 2020.

At the time, prosecution psychiatrist Dr. Gregory C. Landrum said Harrouff was legally insane when he fatally attacked Michelle and John Stevens outside their home in August 2016.

Landrum noted at the time that Harrouff was being treated for schizophrenia when he was jailed.

The psychiatrist’s finding bolsters the Harrouff’s attorneys case, who argued that the 25-year-old should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Landrum’s conclusion was that Harrouff was ‘unable to distinguish right from wrong’ when he killed the couple – the legal standard in Florida for being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The trial was significantly delayed by the pandemic and Harrouff’s slow recovery from critical injuries which he sustained while drinking chemicals at the time of the attack.

In previous reports, state prosecution claimed that it would be unlikely that Harrouff would be released, despite claims made by his family on Friday.

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