‘Wolflike state’ ascribed to defendant

A Martin County man indicted on two counts of capital murder yesterday has at times "mentally devolved into a wolflike state," according to testimony at previous mental health hearings.Witnesses said a naked William "Billy" Sartin, 47, of Inez "would run free in the woods, not necessarily at a time he was being chased by law enforcement," said Stephen N. Frazier of Paintsville, who heard several cases involving Sartin before he retired. ... Frazier recalled hearing a mental-health witness using the word "lycanthropy," defined in dictionaries -- but not in the mental-health manual used in court -- as "a mental illness in which one imagines oneself to be a wolf."

Sartin is not a werewolf, Frazier said, but his strength and stamina always provided a problem for police.

"I'm telling you, he was the fastest thing on two, or four, feet, whichever way you want to say it," Frazier said. "You couldn't catch him with a car, or a four-wheeler, if he was in the woods." If he was very fast, he also was very ill, the former judge said. "There was so much," Frazier said. "He had these motor skills -- he could sit perfectly still, not moving -- and then this sort of split-second, instant adrenaline. And whatever impulse came into his mind, he would act on it."

Frazier ruled Sartin was incompetent to stand trial in two murder-solicitation cases. "He obviously couldn't," Frazier said. "He was so delusional." - kentucky