Meiser displays bizarre behavior in court

OREGON CITY, Ore. – According to jail authorities, the man investigators are now linking to two murders has already been written up twice for threatening corrections staff.

In one case it was for making a death signal, a finger across the throat, to someone who works there, and during a bizarre exchange with a judge Friday, Erik Meiser made it pretty obvious why his defense team is raising concerns about his mental state.

• More on the Hayes murder case

Within moments of his arrival in the courtroom, Meiser displayed a spectrum of expression. One moment he was jovial and laughing, staring straight at KATU's television camera. Then he was smirking again.

"I'm actually not interested in moving in forward, so you might as well go ahead and send me to the mental hospital then because until I'm not woken up at 5 o'clock in the morning every single morning, I don't want to cooperate," Meiser told the judge.

Meiser is charged with the September stabbing death of Lake Oswego's Fritz Hayes. And sources told KATU News investigators are linking him to the summer murder of Nick Fickett in Kelso.

Meiser's stepfather told KATU Friday his stepson was diagnosed with schizophrenia a long time ago and is delusional.

His mental health is a factor in Judge Eve Miller's decision to prevent him from talking with reporters as he has said he'd like to do.

He told Miller there's evidence he's delusional.

"Well tapes would show ... Look there's proof, there's factual proof, I’m not going to argue about it," he said. "As soon as I begin to wake up, somebody's there to say something, some skullduggery or project some semantics into my psyche, and I'm tired of it. And everybody knows it's happening and no one cares."

Deputies at the jail said Meiser does have one person who seems to care about him: his wife. They said she's on his visiting list and has flown up to Oregon from California to see him.

Miller said she'll take another look at his mental health evaluations and whether he should be allowed to talk to the media in December.