Anchorage Daily News

FAIRBANKS -- A man who is accused of slitting the throat of a mental health worker in Fairbanks wants to be released from a psychiatric facility in Anchorage.

Brian Galbraith, 51, is institutionalized in the Alaska Psychiatric Institute after voluntarily having himself committed.

His request for release came about a month after a murder charge was dropped when Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Robert Downes declared him incompetent to stand trial.

Galbraith has been treated for paranoid schizophrenia since at least 1980. He was staying in a group home in Fairbanks when, authorities say, he killed 32-year-old Genine Holznagel-Leary. The woman's throat was slit and she was stabbed in the back.

The institute's clinical director, Larry Maile, says an Anchorage judge will have to determine that Galbraith poses an imminent threat to others in order to keep him against his will.

Maile said he is unsure whether Galbraith's behavior now meets the legal benchmark for an involuntary commitment.

"Based on my experience and understanding of the law, we may not be able to establish that Mr. Galbraith's current level of dangerousness poses an imminent risk to the public," Maile stated in an affidavit filed in Fairbanks Superior Court.

A hearing took place Wednesday at which state prosecutors asked Downes to reconsider his ruling deeming Galbraith unfit to stand trial.

Downes refused, saying that Galbraith is dangerous and should remain locked up but that reinstituting criminal charges would be a ruse to keep Galbraith in state custody, according to court documents.

Downes pointed to erratic behavior in court and a psychiatric evaluation deeming Galbraith incompetent to stand trial.

The judge said the state could refile criminal charges or seek an involuntary psychiatric commitment.

In 1983, a jury convicted Galbraith of attempted kidnapping after he put a hard, shiny object to a woman's neck and tried to force her into a car, according to court records. He received a five-year prison sentence.

In 1989, a jury convicted Galbraith of third-degree assault after he threatened a grocery store employee with a knife. He received five years of suspended jail time and was ordered to comply with his mental health treatment plan, records stated.

Three other assault charges since 1982 were dismissed. At least two involved allegations that Galbraith had a knife.

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