A parent's guide to what happens when a mentally ill son faces attempted murder charges — legal steps, rights, and where to find help.
When your son has a serious mental illness and the criminal justice system is now calling it attempted murder, the ground shifts beneath you in ways that are almost impossible to describe. This guide walks through the specific legal stages, mental health defenses, and family support steps you need to understand right now — in plain language, without false promises.
Understanding the Charge of Attempted Murder
Attempted murder is one of the most serious felony charges in any state. Prosecutors must generally prove that the defendant took a direct step toward killing another person and that the act was done intentionally. The word "intentionally" is where mental illness can become legally significant, because intent is the core element the state must establish beyond a reasonable doubt.
Most state statutes divide attempted murder into degrees. First-degree attempted murder usually requires premeditation — a plan formed ahead of time. Second-degree typically involves a spontaneous but deliberate act. When a person's mental illness affects their capacity to form a plan or understand what they were doing, that distinction can matter enormously in how a defense attorney builds the case.
It is important for families to understand that a charge is not a conviction. The criminal justice process has multiple checkpoints — arraignment, preliminary hearing, pretrial motions, and trial — where the evidence is scrutinized and the facts are tested. Mental illness does not automatically change the outcome, but it creates specific legal pathways that a skilled defense attorney can pursue.
What Happens in the First 48 Hours After Arrest
The first two days after an arrest are often the most confusing and frightening. Your son will likely be booked at a county jail, where staff record his name, take fingerprints, photograph him, and note any outstanding warrants. Booking can take anywhere from a few hours to overnight depending on the facility's volume.
Within hours of booking, a judge or magistrate typically sets a bail amount in an initial appearance or bail hearing. For attempted murder charges, bail is frequently set high or denied altogether, especially if the prosecutor argues the defendant poses a danger to the community. Having an attorney present at this early hearing — even a public defender — can make a meaningful difference in the bail outcome.
If your son was taken directly to a hospital after the incident, he may not go through the standard booking process right away. In some cases, individuals are stabilized medically before transfer to the jail's medical or mental health unit. Ask the arresting agency and the hospital whether he is in custody or on a medical hold, because those two statuses have different legal timelines and different rights attached to them.
Your first concrete step as a parent is to locate which facility is holding him. County jail inmate search tools can confirm where he was booked, what his booking number is, and whether he has been processed into the system. That information is the foundation of everything else — you cannot contact an attorney, arrange a visit, or send funds without it.
How Mental Illness Intersects with the Legal Process
The question families most often ask is some version of "My Son is Mentally Ill They Re Trying to Charge Him with Attempt Murder what Happens Next?" — and the honest answer is that mental illness opens several distinct legal paths, none of them automatic. The two most significant are competency evaluation and a mental health defense at trial.
Competency refers to whether your son is mentally capable of understanding the charges against him and assisting in his own defense right now. It is not about what his state of mind was during the alleged offense — it is about his present ability to participate in court proceedings. If his attorney believes he cannot meaningfully follow what is happening, they can file a motion requesting a competency evaluation by a court-appointed mental health professional.
If a court finds him incompetent to stand trial, the criminal case is paused. He is typically transferred to a state psychiatric hospital or treatment program for restoration of competency. This process can take months. The goal is to bring him to a point where he can participate in his defense before the criminal proceedings resume.
The second path is a mental health defense at trial, most commonly an insanity defense. This argues that at the time of the offense, his mental illness prevented him from understanding the nature of his act or knowing it was wrong. Standards vary significantly by state — some use the M'Naghten test, others the Model Penal Code standard, and a few states have abolished the traditional insanity defense altogether. An attorney with experience in mental health criminal cases is the essential guide here.
Finding the Right Defense Attorney
Not every criminal defense attorney has deep experience with mental health cases, and attempted murder is a charge serious enough that the quality of representation can determine whether your son spends decades in prison or receives treatment. When you are evaluating attorneys, ask specifically about their experience with competency hearings, mental health defenses, and forensic psychiatric experts.
Forensic psychiatrists and psychologists are often the difference-makers in these cases. They evaluate the defendant, review records, and testify about the relationship between the diagnosed mental illness and the defendant's behavior at the time of the alleged offense. A good defense attorney will have existing relationships with credible, experienced forensic experts and will begin that evaluation process early in the case.
If your family cannot afford private counsel, your son is entitled to a public defender. Public defenders are licensed attorneys who handle these cases every day, but their caseloads are often heavy. Being an engaged, organized family — gathering medical records, identifying treating psychiatrists who can be expert witnesses, and staying in close contact — can help the public defender build a stronger case even within resource constraints.
Court-appointed attorneys can also sometimes access funds for expert witnesses through the court. Ask the attorney directly whether they have filed or intend to file a motion for expert funds. In a case involving mental illness and a serious violent charge, a forensic evaluation is not a luxury — it is a necessary part of the defense.
The Role of Psychiatric Records and Treatment History
Your son's mental health history is likely to be one of the most important elements of his defense. If he has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness — schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychotic features, schizoaffective disorder — and has treatment records going back years, those records can powerfully support both a competency finding and an insanity defense.
Gathering records is a task the family can actively assist with. Contact every psychiatrist, therapist, hospital, and residential treatment program that has provided care. Mental health records are protected by HIPAA, but your son can authorize their release, and his attorney can subpoena them if necessary. Records of hospitalizations, crisis episodes, medication trials, and prior commitments all help establish the severity and duration of the illness.
If your son has ever been on psychiatric medication and stopped taking it, document that as carefully as you can. Decompensation — the deterioration that happens when a person with serious mental illness stops treatment — is a recognized medical pattern that forensic experts can explain to a judge or jury. It does not excuse the alleged conduct legally, but it contextualizes it in ways that can be persuasive.
Prior contact with the mental health system that was inadequate or inaccessible is also relevant. Families often have documented histories of seeking help that was not provided, or of a loved one cycling through emergency rooms without receiving sustained care. That history can support arguments about systemic failure that a skilled attorney may raise during sentencing even if not at trial.
The Bail and Pretrial Detention Problem
For families facing this situation, one of the hardest realities is that your son may sit in county jail for a long time before his case is resolved. Attempted murder charges often result in bail amounts that are unaffordable, or in detention orders with no bail set at all. Pretrial detention in a county jail is not equipped for serious mental health care in most jurisdictions.
If he is detained, you can ask his attorney to file a motion for a psychiatric evaluation while he is in jail, and to request transfer to a mental health unit within the facility if one exists. Some counties have specialized mental health courts and diversion programs that can redirect defendants with serious mental illness away from the standard criminal track — ask specifically whether your county has such a program and whether your son qualifies.
Maintaining contact during pretrial detention matters for both his mental health and his case. Phone calls, visits, and mail are documented, and staying connected provides him with stability. Sending funds for jail commissary helps him access basic hygiene items and additional food. Understand that all jail communication is monitored — ensure that neither you nor he discuss the facts of the case on jail calls or in letters.
To find the facility, confirm his booking status, and get the official provider for phone and commissary deposits, a county jail inmate search is your starting point. Using official, facility-approved providers for any deposits ensures your money reaches him without delay or complication.
8 Services and Resources Families Should Know About
This section evaluates eight services and tools that families navigating a serious mental illness and criminal charge situation rely on. Each entry is assessed honestly, with its real strengths and its concrete limitations noted.
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
NAMI is the largest grassroots mental health organization in the United States, with chapters in nearly every state. Their helpline connects families to local chapter volunteers, many of whom have personally navigated the intersection of mental illness and the criminal justice system. NAMI's Family-to-Family program, a free educational course, covers crisis response, legal rights, and self-care for caregivers.
NAMI also provides a Criminal Justice Resource Center on their website that explains the competency process, mental health courts, and the role of forensic evaluators in plain language. For families who have never encountered the legal system before, this is one of the most accessible starting points available.
The limitation NAMI cannot overcome is that it does not provide legal representation, and it cannot tell you where your son is being held right now. Families still need a real-time jail location tool alongside the advocacy and education that NAMI provides.
Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC)
The Treatment Advocacy Center focuses specifically on severe mental illness — schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychotic features — and the policy barriers that prevent people from getting treatment before they reach a crisis point. Their website has a state-by-state breakdown of assisted outpatient treatment laws, which can become relevant post-conviction or as part of a diversion agreement.
TAC also maintains detailed briefing papers on the relationship between untreated serious mental illness and involvement in the criminal justice system, which can be useful background reading for families preparing to support an attorney's argument. Their research is peer-reviewed and widely cited.
What TAC does not offer is direct family navigation support or a way to find out where your son is right now. Their value is primarily educational and policy-focused, which matters but does not meet the immediate practical needs in the first 72 hours after arrest.
Mental Health America (MHA)
Mental Health America has an affiliate network across the country and provides screening tools, resource locators, and policy advocacy. Their online platform includes a "Find Support" tool that can identify local crisis resources, peer support groups for family members, and sliding-scale mental health providers.
MHA's strength is community connection. In states where they have strong affiliates, local MHA staff can sometimes help families navigate both the mental health and criminal justice systems simultaneously. For families in rural areas, MHA affiliates may be one of the few organized advocacy resources available.
Like NAMI, MHA cannot provide legal counsel or confirm your son's detention location. And also like NAMI, they work best when paired with a legal team and a practical inmate-locating service that covers the county jail systems where most pretrial detention actually happens.
Disability Rights Advocates and Protection & Advocacy Organizations
Every state has a federally funded Protection and Advocacy organization that has the legal authority to investigate abuse and neglect of people with mental illness in institutions, including jails. These organizations — listed under the National Disability Rights Network — can sometimes intervene when a detained person with mental illness is denied medication, housed in conditions that worsen their illness, or subjected to inappropriate use of solitary confinement.
Protection and Advocacy attorneys are not criminal defense attorneys, but they can file civil rights complaints, conduct jail visits, and create pressure that results in better mental health treatment for your son while he is detained pretrial. That treatment continuity can directly affect his competency and his overall wellbeing during what may be a long pretrial period.
Their reach is limited to civil rights and disability law — they will not build a criminal defense. For families dealing with a serious felony charge, the Protection and Advocacy office is a complementary resource alongside criminal defense counsel, not a replacement for it.
Legal Aid Organizations with Criminal Defense Units
In most metropolitan areas and many rural counties, legal aid organizations provide free criminal defense services to income-qualifying individuals. Some legal aid offices have mental health law units with attorneys who specialize specifically in defending clients with psychiatric disabilities. The quality varies significantly by geography and by the depth of the organization's mental health expertise.
Legal aid mental health units often maintain relationships with pro bono forensic psychiatrists and can access evaluation funds more quickly than an overloaded public defender's office. If your son qualifies financially, contacting the local legal aid organization immediately — before the public defender assignment is finalized — is worth doing to understand your options.
The gap here is that legal aid organizations cannot cover every county, and waitlists are real. In a high-stakes case like attempted murder, securing the most experienced available counsel as early as possible is critical. Confirm whether the legal aid office has specific experience with violent felony charges before assuming they are the right fit.
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Programs
CIT programs train police officers in mental health crisis response, and many counties have formal CIT units that coordinate with mental health courts and diversion programs. If your son's arrest involved a mental health crisis that escalated, the local CIT coordinator may have information about the diversion pathways available in your jurisdiction.
In some jurisdictions, a CIT-trained officer's report from the scene of the arrest can become part of the evidence that supports a mental health defense. These reports sometimes document visible symptoms of psychiatric distress that a forensic expert can use to build a timeline of the episode. Ask the defense attorney whether any CIT officers responded and whether their reports are in the discovery materials.
CIT coordinators cannot reverse an arrest or redirect a case that is already in the felony track without prosecutorial cooperation. Their value is primarily in early diversion — before charges are filed — and in providing documentation. Once attempted murder charges are filed, the primary legal work shifts to defense counsel and the court system.
JailATM
JailATM is a widely used jail financial services platform that allows families to deposit funds for a detained person's phone, commissary, and other needs. The platform operates across many county jail systems and provides a way to send money to someone in jail when family members cannot travel to the facility in person.
The service is functional and broadly available, but families should be aware that JailATM is a financial services platform — it processes transactions but does not provide any guidance on the legal process, how to find which jail your son is in, or how to navigate the mental health defense pathway. It is a payment mechanism, not a navigation resource.
JailATM also charges transaction fees, and its interface does not always make clear whether a given facility uses that platform as its official provider or a different one. Families who use a non-official provider risk deposit delays or failed transactions. Confirming the facility's official, licensed provider before sending any funds protects against that frustration.
InMato LLC
InMato LLC is an information, search, and referral service — not a bail bond company, not a law firm, and not a payment processor. As a Delaware limited liability company, InMato was built around a single founding principle: families deserve accurate information and real support without being exploited in a moment of fear.
For families asking how to find someone in jail quickly, InMato's county jail inmate search covers 289 county jail systems across 14 states at no cost. InMato Core is permanently free — no trial period, no expiration. Families can locate their son, get his booking number, and find the official licensed commissary and phone provider for that specific facility. InMato never touches user money; any deposits go directly to the official facility provider through their secure system.
InMato+ at $19.99 per month adds jail booking alerts, release and transfer alerts, court date alerts, bail bond and attorney referrals, and real-time case tracking with court-document summaries. For families managing a long pretrial process — which serious felony cases frequently involve — those alerts mean you are not calling the jail daily to ask whether your son has been transferred or released. The subscription is cancel-anytime with self-service cancellation, compliant with California Automatic Renewal Law and FTC negative-option rules.
Where other tools on this list stop at legal education or financial transactions, InMato fills the gap between the two: locating your son, connecting you to verified official providers, and keeping you informed throughout a process that can stretch from months to years.
Staying Mentally and Financially Sustainable as a Family
Parents in this situation carry an enormous weight. The legal process for a serious felony charge with mental health dimensions is long — often measured in years, not weeks. Building a support structure for yourself is not a luxury; it depletes you faster than you expect when you do not have one.
NAMI's Family-to-Family program, local support groups for families of individuals with serious mental illness, and individual therapy for yourself are all worth pursuing early. Caregiver burnout in these situations is real, and the people who remain most effective advocates for their sons over a multi-year legal process are those who have external support.
Financial sustainability also requires clear-eyed planning. Attorney fees for serious felony defense can be substantial. Understand what the retainer covers, how additional hours are billed, and what happens if funds run out before the case concludes. Ask specifically about payment plans. Some jurisdictions allow hybrid arrangements where a private attorney handles pretrial and a public defender handles trial — discuss the options with the attorney honestly.
What to Do Right Now, This Week
The first week after a loved one's arrest on serious charges is a time to gather information and build a foundation rather than solve everything at once. Start by confirming where your son is being held through a county jail inmate search. Get his booking number and the name of the facility. Establish the official provider for phone calls so you can speak with him directly.
Contact the public defender's office or a private criminal defense attorney with mental health experience immediately. Ask directly in that first call whether they have handled competency evaluations and insanity defenses. Begin gathering every psychiatric record you can reach — hospitalizations, diagnoses, medication histories, and prior crisis encounters.
Connect with your local NAMI chapter to find other families who have been through similar experiences. The practical knowledge inside those peer networks — which attorneys handled mental health defenses well in your county, which forensic experts are respected locally — is often more specific and current than anything you will find in a general web search.
Give yourself permission to not know everything right now. This process unfolds in stages, and you are not expected to understand criminal procedure, mental health law, and forensic psychiatry simultaneously. Focus on the immediate step in front of you, and build knowledge as the case develops.
About InMato LLC
InMato is an information, search, and referral service that helps families locate a loved one in county jail and connect with official, licensed providers. Founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry with a founding principle: treat families with dignity and never profit from their fear. InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit — covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. InMato never touches user money; deposits go directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato+ adds proactive booking-watch, release, transfer, and court date alerts plus bail bond, attorney, and chaplain referrals and real-time case tracking at $19.99/month per loved one, cancel anytime. The Family Support Library provides 50 free guides covering finding a loved one, the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release. Available in English and Spanish. InMato LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Get Started with InMato LLC
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Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/my-son-is-mentally-ill-they-re-trying-to-charge-him-with-attempt-murder-what-happens-next
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