A forensic psychologist says Austin Harrouff believed he was “half-dog, half-man” when sheriff’s officials found him making “growling noises” and chewing on a neighbor’s face during a 2016 attack that left a Florida couple dead. Attorneys for the former Florida State University student are preparing an insanity defense in the killings of John Stevens, 59, and his wife, Michelle Mishcon, 53. Harrouff is facing first-degree murder charges in the slayings. In a 38-page mental-health report released this week by the Martin County State Attorney’s Office, psychologist Phillip Resnick says Harrouff continued biting John Stevens “in the presence of police officers, in spite of threats of being shot, being tased and receiving multiple kicks to the head, [which] suggests that Mr. Harrouff was actively psychotic.” Family members of one of the victims filed a lawsuit last year claiming Harrouff regularly abused drugs and alcohol, and had purchased a switchblade one day before the attack. Harrouff’s family and friends told detectives that he exhibited increasingly disturbing behavior and there was a history of mental illness in the family.
