Judge: Princeton Alumnus Competent to Stand Trial in Father’s Murder

Gilbert
Gilbert

A New York State Supreme Court Justice decided Monday that Thomas Gilbert Jr., the Princeton University graduate accused of killing his hedge-fund father in Manhattan last January, is mentally fit to stand trial.

The judge rejected lawyers’ arguments that Gilbert can’t look at anything in a realistic way. The judge also rejected the recommendations of two court-appointed psychiatrists who found Gilbert mentally unfit to stand trial in September.

Gilbert was charged with murder after allegedly entering his parents’ home and fatally shooting his father, who had reportedly cut back the monthly stipend he was giving his son.

In a letter to the Manhattan district attorney about his case, Gilbert wrote that he wanted to be released from jail and have his case dismissed. According to the New York Post, he told the prosecutor he went to the elite Buckley School in Manhattan, then graduated from the Deerfield Academy and Princeton University. He complained in the letter that he was being railroaded and that being in jail was damaging his personal life and career. He wrote that his  goal is to dismiss and seal the indictment.

Gilbert’s attorneys had said the letter was more proof that the Princeton grad had no grasp on reality, but the prosecution said it showed Gilbert was able to string together a rational argument. The prosecution argued that Gilbert had been able to function in society until he allegedly killed his father.