Son who killed Kent teacher could spend life in a mental hospital

With a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity accepted by a judge, Michael Gese, 32, could spent the rest of his life in a state mental hospital for killing Gail Gese, his mother and a Kent middle school teacher.

Gese, 32, faced a trial date of Sept. 23 for a first-degree murder charge in Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma, but entered his plea in August in the Feb. 1, 2023 stabbing of his mother at her Tacoma home. Judge Philip Sorensen accepted the plea after reviewing Gese’s forensic psychological evaluation to determine his sanity at the time of the offense, according to court documents.

“At the time of the acts charged, the defendant was suffering from a mental disease or defect affecting the defendant’s mind to the extent that the defendant was unable to perceive the nature and quality of his actions and unable to tell right from wrong with reference to the particular acts charged, Sorensen wrote in his findings and order document. “The defendant was legally insane at the time of the commission of the acts charged in the original information filed herein.”

Sorensen also ordered Gese into the custody of the state Department of Social and Health Sciences (DSHS). A Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson said in a Sept. 30 email that he didn’t know if Gese was sent to Western State or Eastern State mental hospitals, but said most likely to Western in Lakewood. Eastern is in Medical Lake, near Spokane.

The judge’s order said Gese shall “remain at the state mental hospital or such facility as the (DSHS) secretary shall designate subject only to further proceedings of this court.”

According to the spokesperson, when someone pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, part of the colloquy with the defendant is making sure they understand that they could be held by DSHS up to the maximum of the offense they pleaded to, which in this case was first-degree murder, so the maximum is for life. Whether he is ever deemed to be no longer a danger to others is ultimately up to the court.

Gail Gese, 66, taught in the Kent School District. Starting in 2011, she taught math, foods, fads and finance at Cedar Heights Middle School, in Covington. She previously taught at Kent Phoenix Academy. The Kent Community Foundation awarded a scholarship in Gail Gese’s name earlier this year to a Kent-Meridian High School student. Friends of Gail Gese set up the annual scholarship fund.

Pierce County Superior Court judges went back and forth in 2023 about whether Gese was competent to stand trial.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Karena Kirkendoll ruled in February 2023 Gese incompetent to stand trial for the first-degree murder charge and ordered competency restoration for him following evaluations of Gese. That ruling came after a doctor diagnosed Gese with schizophrenia, which he now treats with olansapine as prescribed by a doctor, according to court documents.

Gese told Tacoma Police detectives after his Feb. 1, 2023 arrest that he was having an issue with his mother because she asked him to leave the residence which would cause him to be homeless again and he didn’t want to do that. He admitted to detectives that he stabbed his mother in the neck, according to court documents.

In October 2023, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Grant Blinn ruled that Gese is competent to stand trial, that he has the capacity to understand the nature of the proceedings against him and to assist in his defense, according to court documents.

But further evaluation of Gese in 2024, ordered by a judge for a forensic psychological examination to determine Gese’s sanity at the time of the offense, led to the conclusion by a psychologist in a 38-page document issued in July that Gese was unable to determine right from wrong at the time of the alleged offense and that Gese’s risk factors would best be mitigated in a structured treatment setting such as Western State Hospital.

The evaluation stated that Gese was affected by acute symptoms of schizophrenia. These symptoms included grandiose and technological delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, restricted emotionality, odd behaviors, agitation and aggression.

Gese had described his stabbing of his mother in the neck that he had to “pop the head off a robot. When a psychologist asked Gese about his delusional process, he reported that he was in fact an “elitist” and was elevated to that status due to his actions of disposing of the robot.

“While he had some basic awareness of who the victim was and his relationship to her, his understanding of the nature and quality of the totality of the act as charged appeared limited and notably impaired,” according to the judge’s findings and order report.