Former pastor who killed wife, attacked daughter wants to stop mental health treatment
A former Alabama pastor who was institutionalized and ordered to undergo mental health treatment after he was found not guilty of killing his wife and attacking his daughter by reason of mental defect in 2013, is now seeking to stop his treatment so he can live close to his family again, but a judge has insisted he continue getting help.
In January 2013, Terry Lee Greer, who is now 64, fatally shot his 52-year-old wife, Lisa, inside the parsonage of Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in Gardendale. He also shot his 18-year-old daughter, Suzanna, multiple times inside the home but she managed to disarm him before seeking help from neighbors.
After years of treatment with mental health professionals, Greer who had also attempted to take his own life, has now reportedly improved to the point where he has been allowed to visit family while living in a therapeutic group home where he teaches Bible study, according to AL.com.
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Brenda Lampley of East Central Mental Health Center testified in a report that she has treated Greer each week for about four years. She said Greer has shown remorse for what he did “over and over,’ and has shown that he is now capable of some independence.
“He’s very much aware of the predicament he’s in and why I’m a part of his life,’’ Lampley said.
Greer is seeking to be released from mental health treatment requirements so he can move to Virginia to be near family in that state and Tennessee, but Jefferson County Circuit Judge Michael Streety said while he would allow him to move out of state he cannot release him from the court-ordered mental health treatment plan.
When now retired Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tommy Nail ruled that Greer was not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in 2014, he stated that the former pastor posed a danger to himself and others and committed him to a state institution, AL.com said.
Since then, his restrictions have loosened and in September, his longtime friend and attorney, Henry Lagman, submitted a request for Greer’s unconditional release.
Lagman, stated in the filing that Greer spent one year and a month in the Jefferson County Jail before he was transferred to Bryce mental hospital in Tuscaloosa. He stayed there for three years and one month.
He was eventually moved to the Hillside Therapeutic Group home in Wetumpka in 2018 and he is now living at the Seren Manor Assisted Living in Brundidge where he is allowed to visit his parents in Tennessee.
Experts testified that he has also re-established a relationship with his daughter and sends her money.
“He’s proving that he wants to be here, to make a difference, to show that he can be the person he always was, except for that horrible, horrific accident, and be near his family,’’ Lampley testified while insisting that he would still need to continue his therapy.
When Streety asked her if she was worried he would relapse, she said, “At this moment I don’t, but I can’t foresee the future and that’s why I advocate that he has mental health in place as a safety net.”
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