The short version
- Convicted murderer Tom Richard Rambo (31) is transferred to compulsory mental health care
- It is unclear whether he can be punished for the murder of Lisa Iren Karlsen (40)
- Rambo recently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia
- If he was psychotic at the time of the crime, he cannot be punished. The exception is if the psychosis is self-induced by intoxication.
- The case will be heard in the Eidsivating Court of Appeal in May
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State Attorney Johan Petter Bærland confirms to VG that Rambo will be transferred to the healthcare system. It also appears in the latest imprisonment order.
– It took me one conversation with him to realize that he was seriously ill. As soon as I was out of the interview room in the prison, I sent an SMS to one of the experts and informed them about my experience of the client’s psyche, says Sigurd Klomsæt.
He took over last year as defense counsel for the 31-year-old accused of murder. And thinks Rambo is too sick to be punished.
– He has not been open about the mental problems in the past, because he thought that if he was psychotic, it would mean that he would be drugged up in a corner of an institution, says the defense attorney.
In May, the case will be heard in the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.
Defender
Stung 17 times
When the police entered the couple’s home on the night of 1 March 2022, they found Lisa Iren Karlsen undressed and killed on the living room floor.
She had a broken nose and several ribs, and had been cut and stabbed at least 17 times.
Shortly afterwards, her boyfriend Tom Richard Rambo was arrested for the murder.
On his phone, the police found four photos of Lisa Iren Karlsen taken after the murder.
In the district court, Rambo described the act of murder – and admitted to having killed her.
“See what you’ve made me do now? Now I’m going crazy. Now it clicks”, he is said to have said to her, among other things, according to his own explanation.
In the judgment from last year, it is stated that he was undoubtedly sane when he carried out the murder. He was sentenced to 15 years detentionDetention is an indefinite sentence – which can be extended. Dangerous and sane offenders can be sentenced when a normal prison sentence is not considered sufficient. There must also be a risk of repetition of serious crime..
Now there is doubt.
Got a serious diagnosis
Following a petition from Klomsæt, the 31-year-old has recently been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in an additional psychiatric statement.
The imprisonment order states that the diagnosis may have had an impact on Rambo’s understanding of reality at the time of the incident.
– The fact that his mental health has passed the entire system earlier when the case was dealt with in the district court is incomprehensible. I would describe it as a professionally unacceptable low goal, says defender Sigurd Klomsæt.
If Rambo was psychotic at the time of the crime, he cannot be punished, then he can instead be sentenced to compulsory mental health care.
And when there is no longer any need for coercion, it must end.
The exception is if the psychosis is self-induced by intoxication – then you are not exempt from punishment.
– He has been psychotic without drugs several times, his health history shows. He was forcibly admitted to Ahus days after the murder and then he was psychotic. Examinations showed that he was drug-free, says Klomsæt.
Compulsory mental health care
- Last year, 51 people were sentenced to compulsory mental health care, 39 of them for an indefinite period. 15 of the offenses concerned murder and attempted murder.
- Sentencing to compulsory mental health care is a special response that was introduced in 2002. The number of such sentences per year has increased strongly since 2017.
- Indeterminate sentences for serious offenses are most common and can be maintained as long as social protection requires it.
- From 2002 to 2023, a total of 609 sentences were handed down for compulsory mental health care. 547 of these sentences are indefinite.
- 241 of the offenses with indefinite sentences were murder and attempted murder.
- At the turn of the year, 334 people were serving indefinite sentences.
Source: National coordination unit for sentencing to compulsory mental health care
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– He has committed a brutal murder of a human being. Why should he not be punished?
– Because we do not punish sick people in Norway, replies Klomsæt.
The case was first up for appeal in October last year, but was postponed until May this year when doubts arose about his sanity.
Postponed trial
In court, Rambo told that he heard voices in his head and had delusions, according to the newspaper Glåmdalen, which followed the negotiations.
Initially, only the sentencing was to be processed – and the appeal period for the question of guilt had expired.
It has now been decided that the question of guilt will also be dealt with.
Public prosecutor
Prosecutor Johan Petter Bærland tells VG that whether Rambo was sane during the murder will be central to the appeal.
But he does not want to answer whether he will ask the court that he be sentenced to mental health care.
– The supplementary statement that has now arrived is being processed by the forensic commission. Only when it has been processed there will the public prosecutor decide on it. Our position has not been decided, and I cannot comment on the content of the declaration, he says.
Regarding the fact that compulsory mental health care was not a topic in the district court, he replies:
– I have no comment on that. The public prosecution relates to the available information.
Legal aid attorney Snorre Torgrimsby represents the family of the late Lisa Iren Karlsen.
– We take this into account, and await further progress and the judgment in the Court of Appeal, he says to VG.
