Man In Library Killing Found Not Guilty By Insanity: Patch PM

FOXBOROUGH, MA — It's Wednesday, March 31. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• The man who prosecutors said stabbed his former classmate 20 times in 2018 was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
• A major boost on the vaccination front.
• A horror movie filmed in Massachusetts gets an anticipated release this weekend.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

Jeffrey Yao was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Middlesex Superior Court Wednesday for stabbing a former classmate of his 20 times — killing her — and slashing a man who tried to intervene three years ago in the Winchester Public Library.

Police said in Feb. 2018 Yao snuck up behind Deanne Stryker and stabbed her repeatedly with a hunting knife, killing the 21-year-old. Yao also slashed a 77-year-old man who attempted to help her.

But doctors found Yao was mentally ill during the attack and thus lacked criminal responsibility due to his mental state.

Yao now faces hospitalization at Bridgewater State Hospital, where he will undergo annual mental health reviews. He could be released one day or spend the rest of the life in the hospital, the judge said, according to The Boston Globe.

"Deanne Stryker was an amazing young woman planning a life full of promise and service," Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. "No outcome in this case can ever diminish the great tragedy of her death or fill the void left in the lives of her mother, sisters and others who loved her."

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Other top stories

100k Johnson & Johnson doses inbound: Massachusetts will get more than 100,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week, something Gov. Charlie Baker said is a sign the federal government is ramping up distribution. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine necessitates just one shot to inoculate people. So far about 85,000 Johnson & Johnson doses have been part of the roughly 3.5 million vaccines administered in Massachusetts, per state data released Tuesday.

The Championship Pride Of Marblehead: Lexie Laing said she and her Boston Pride teammates felt the coronavirus had stolen two National Women's Hockey League championships from them in the past year. Saturday night was the night for the Marblehead native and the Pride to take the crown back together playing for the Isobel Cup on their home ice in Boston. "Honestly, I knew we were going to win right from the start of the day," Laing said.

Sudbury gets creepy: A new horror movie filmed last year around Sudbury's Wayside Inn premiers this week in theaters. "The Unholy" is the film version of the 1983 novel "Shrine" by James Herbert. The movie centers on a young deaf girl who gains the ability to speak, hear and heal the sick after a supposed visit from the Virgin Mary.

Illegal procedure — Former New England Patriots receiver Kenbrell Thompkins is facing identity theft charges after federal prosecutors said he was part of an unemployment insurance fraud scene. Thompkins, 32, of Miami, Florida, was charged with access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. According to prosecutors, Thompkins stole the identities of several Florida residents to get roughly $300,000 in unemployment insurance payouts from the State of California during the coronavirus pandemic, from August through September 2020.