Family members of Smithsburg-area mass shooting victims caught off guard by hearing notice

When Angie Frey heard the man who shot and killed her husband at work last summer was scheduled for a release hearing from a maximum-security psychiatric hospital after a judge ordered him there about four weeks ago, she was stunned.

"I just sat here and cried," said Frey, of Waynesboro, Pa.

But the Washington County State's Attorney said there is no chance that Joe Louis Esquivel, 24, of the Hedgesville, W.Va., area, will be leaving the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Howard County.

"This is a pro-forma, statutory hearing. Esquivel will not be released," Gina Cirincion wrote in an email last Wednesday.

Esquivel pleaded guilty on May 2 to killing three co-workers at Columbia Machine near Smithsburg last June 9, and to trying to kill another co-worker and assaulting a fifth co-worker. Esquivel also pleaded guilty to trying to kill two Maryland State Police officers during a shootout after he fled his workplace.

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Mark Alan Frey, 50, of Waynesboro, Pa.; Charles "C.J." Edward Minnick Jr., 31, of Smithsburg; and Joshua "Josh" Robert Wallace, 30, of the Hagerstown area, were killed that June day at work. Also shot was Columbia Machine co-worker Brandon Chase Michael, then 42.

Maryland State Police Detective Sgt. Phil Martin was shot during the shootout after Esquivel fled the Bikle Road business.

Esquivel was found to be not criminally responsible due to previously undiagnosed schizophrenia and ordered to be taken to a state psychiatric hospital for treatment.

Under state law, Esquivel could be released some day, without serving time in state prison, if he's ever found to no longer be a threat to himself or others.

When did family find out Esquivel likely wouldn't be released?

It took a day after receiving the hearing notice last Tuesday for Frey to learn Esquivel is not expected to be released from Perkins as a result of the scheduled hearing next month.

Frey said she and the others were "very much caught off guard" by the email a week ago that notified them of the virtual hearing.

Turns out the timing of the hearing, to be held virtually on June 29, is called for by state law, according to a statute shared by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. A Maryland Department of Health hearing officer is to hold a hearing within 50 days after commitment "to consider any relevant information that will enable the hearing officer to make recommendations to the court as to whether the committed person is eligible for release," according to state criminal procedure law regarding incompetency and criminal responsibility in criminal cases.

Because the hearing is "pro-forma" — which means done as a matter of form, based on the statute — Cirincion said Esquivel would remain in Perkins.

To be released in such cases, the burden of proof lies with the committed person, according to state statute. Esquivel's attorneys would have "the burden to establish by a preponderance of the evidence eligibility for discharge or eligibility for conditional release."

Taylor Toms, whose boyfriend, Josh Wallace, was one of the men shot and killed that day at work, said it was "definitely a shocker" to get the hearing notice.

Toms, who lives south of Hagerstown, has a little familiarity with Perkins and the not criminally responsible process because she has a family member confined there, getting treatment for mental illness.

She said when she received the notice, she checked with the state's attorney victim/witness coordinator and a family member familiar with the hearing process.

Will there be more hearings for Esquivel?

Beyond the June hearing, annual hearings can be expected. The hearings, she was told, give the surviving victims and family members an opportunity to know where Esquivel is with his treatment plan.

State Sen. Paul Corderman, R-Washington, whom Frey contacted when she received the hearing notice, said he also contacted the state's attorney's office and learned the hearing is "more procedural than anything."

"It's still absurd" that Esquivel getting out soon would be a remote possibility, Corderman said.

Corderman said he plans to meet with the surviving victims and family members, as well as the state's attorney's office, before the 2024 state legislative session to talk about what bills could be introduced to address concerns with the not criminally responsible process.

Toms and Frey said they plan to participate in the virtual hearing.

"It's going to suck for us to have to keep doing this every year," Toms said. "But I want to be a part of it. In these situations, the victims actually do matter."

Toms said she's hoping that by participating in such hearings, the surviving victims and family members can have a say in keeping Esquivel from being released from the psychiatric hospital.

“I want him to know what he did and understand it and feel remorse for it," Toms said.

Frey said it was "hard enough to lose my husband, even worse to lose him in the manner I did. Now to have to fight with these people to keep the guy locked up is so ridiculous."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Families of Maryland mass shooting victims caught off guard by notice