Oregon Public Broadcasting

By MARK FREEMAN

Mail Tribune

A 51-year-old Medford man likely will offer a defense that he was mentally disturbed when he allegedly strangled his girlfriend to death and barricaded himself in the bathroom of a west Medford apartment before surrendering to police last year.

Court records show that Mitchell Alan Below's attorney intends to argue her client was under an extreme mental and emotional disturbance at the time of Bonnie Sue Payne's death on March 4, 2011.

Public defender Christine Herbert also filed a notice that she intends to call mental health experts during the murder trial, set for March 12 before Judge Timothy Gerking in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Below was ordered in December to be evaluated by mental health doctors at the Oregon State Hospital.

Herbert told Gerking during a Monday afternoon court hearing that she and prosecutors were awaiting the written reports on that evaluation.

Herbert said in court that she expects the non-jury trial to last three days.

Below, who appeared in court wearing blue-green Jackson County Jail smocks, did not speak at the brief hearing. He was then returned to the jail, where he has remained held without bail.

If convicted on the murder charge, Below faces a 25-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

Payne, 48, was a cook at Mr. Smith's restaurant in Medford and shared with Below a West Sixth Street apartment upstairs from the Jackson County Public Defender's Office.

Police called to an early-morning disturbance there found the 5-foot, 100-pound Payne dead and Below barricaded in the bathroom.

After a three-hour standoff, Below surrendered to police. He was found suffering from self-inflicted knife wounds.

An autopsy placed the cause of Payne's death as strangulation, according to a medical examiner's report.

Authorities have not discussed publicly a possible motive for the slaying.

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470, or email at mfreeman@mailtribune.com.

This story originally appeared in Medford Mail Tribune.