Faribault's alleged suicide nurse places fate in hands of judge

FARIBAULT, MINN. - A prosecutor told a judge Thursday that a former nurse used the Internet to advise, encourage and assist two people to kill themselves, making him guilty of criminally aiding suicide.

Though William Melchert-Dinkel is charged in only two cases, Rice County Attorney Paul Beaumaster said that the 48-year-old Faribault man, portraying himself as an "angel of mercy," chatted online with 10 suicidal people, five of whom killed themselves.

"He liked the chase," said Beaumaster, at an abbreviated trial in which attorneys for both sides made arguments to a judge who is tasked with deciding whether Melchert-Dinkel is guilty.

Defense attorney Terry Allen Watkins argued that his client is not guilty because his written "babblings," while "despicable," are protected free speech, and because Melchert-Dinkel did not materially assist in the two suicides.

"He did not provide a rope, he did not provide a gun, he did not provide pills," Watkins argued. He said Melchert-Dinkel "did nothing in getting them to do it," even though his behavior amounted to "excessive, morbid, abhorrent, creepy practices."

Watkins said "most people would find it sickening, but it is not a crime."

Melchert-Dinkel is charged with two felony counts of aiding suicide in the deaths of Mark Drybrough, 32, of Coventry, England, in 2005, and 18-year-old Nadia Kajouji of Brampton, Ontario, in 2008. Drybrough hanged himself from a ladder, and Kajouji jumped into a river and died of drowning or hypothermia.

Beaumaster argued that Melchert-Dinkel knew "exactly what he was doing" when he chatted online with Drybrough and Kajouji.

He said the defendant chose to "prey on those who were vulnerable," encouraging them to kill themselves and do so in front of a web cam so he could watch. In the end, they didn't in fact use web cams.

Posed as suicidal female nurse

Beaumaster described the defendant's writings as a "well-calculated, well-rehearsed fraud" in which he pretended to be a female nurse who planned to commit suicide herself. In reality he had no such intention, Beaumaster said.

Watkins countered that the two planned to kill themselves anyway and that his client's chats with them had no effect on their decisions to go forward. Allen said that his client never told them, "'I want you to kill yourself,' or 'I advise you to kill yourself.'"

During Thursday's proceedings, Melchert-Dinkel sat beside Watkins in the small courtroom on the second floor of the county courthouse, sometimes folding his hands or arms. His gaze went alternately from the defense table in front of him to the judge. His wife, Joyce, sat in the first row, behind him. Neuville listened intently to the arguments, sometimes taking notes.

Rarely used suicide statute

Beaumaster said the defendant exchanged e-mails with Kajouji two hours before her fatal jump, and chatted online with Drybrough four or five days before he hung himself. "He clearly had the intention of seeing those people die," Beaumaster said. He said that at Melchert-Dinkel's request, Kajouji had sent him her photo, which he had in his computer the night before she died.

Melchert-Dinkel was charged April 23 under a rarely used statute that makes it a crime for a person who "intentionally advises, encourages, or assists another in taking the other's own life."

Neuville asked Beaumaster what Drybrough did in the four to five days after he last communicated with Melchert-Dinkel. Beaumaster said that even if Melchert-Dinkel had not spoken to Drybrough for a year before the suicide, it would have made no difference unless there was evidence he had come out of his depression in the meantime.