A schizophrenic man who was involuntarily committed, released, and then stopped taking his medication is on trial for second-degree murder in Worcester — and the system that cut him loose months before he stabbed a stranger to death faces zero accountability for the consequences.
Benjamin Willie was 20 when police ordered him involuntarily committed in April 2020 after what his own lawyer called a "breakdown." Weeks later, he was back on the street with a schizophrenia diagnosis and a prescription. He stopped taking his medication. On June 30, 2020, he slashed his girlfriend's tires with a knife, then got into a 1 a.m. altercation with 29-year-old Josue Rios — a man he'd never met — and stabbed him once in the chest, killing him. Rios had cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin in his system and was waiting to buy drugs when he encountered Willie, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
The defense argues self-defense: Willie's lawyer David L. Larsen says Rios approached him with a stick, and that the single stab wound was a "single swipe" that unfortunately "caught" Rios in the chest. Larsen conceded Willie was wrong to slash tires but pointed to his documented schizophrenia as the reason. Prosecutor Joseph A. Simmons countered that Willie's own statements show consciousness of guilt — after the killing, Willie called 911 and claimed he'd used glass, not a knife, and during interrogation he asked officers if they'd ever killed anyone, adding it "sucks when they can't fight back." A judge ruled those statements admissible, finding Willie appeared to have enough control of his faculties.
Willie was deemed competent to stand trial in 2023 — three years after the killing. He's been held without bail since 2020.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, a San Diego man who stabbed a pregnant woman multiple times in the face and neck at a drive-thru ATM pleaded guilty to attempted murder and will likely serve just 10 years. Cole Klemke, 29, attacked the four-months-pregnant woman from behind at 10 a.m. near a Mira Mesa Target, punching her and trying to stab her again after she fell. She fought him off by kicking. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Klemke was identified through surveillance photos and arrested the next day.
Ten years for trying to murder a pregnant woman. A schizophrenia patient released after involuntary commitment with nothing but a pill bottle and a pat on the back. In both cases, the people who made the decisions that put the public at risk are invisible — unnamed, unquestioned, and unaccountable. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette noted the involuntary commitment and release as biographical context; the San Diego Union-Tribune treated the plea deal as routine. Neither outlet pressed on who signed off, or why.
Willie's trial continues in Worcester Superior Court. The question no one in the system has to answer: who decides that a man who just had a psychotic breakdown is fine to walk free, and why does nobody own the outcome when he isn't?
