Murdered Barrington Pastor's Husband Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity
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Henry E. Dozier Jr., 65, has been been held at Bridgewater State Hospital, a medium security facility for evaluating and treating suspects and housing the criminally insane, since being charged with the murder of the Rev. Esther Dozier, then 65, on June 11, 2007.
Esther Dozier, the first woman pastor of Clinton AME Zion Church in Great Barrington, was found stabbed to death at about 6:30 a.m. on June 11 in couple's Railroad Street home. Henry Dozier, her husband of 42 years, was arrested in a Lenox parking lot, and taken to Berkshire Medical Center for possibly swallowing poison. He'd allegedly crashed his truck earlier that morning and walked away from the scene.
The couple were married in Clinton AME, where civil rights leader W.E.B. Dubois once regularly worshipped. Henry Dozier was also a deacon at the 139-year-old church.
According to the Berkshire County district attorney's office, he appeared before Berkshire Superior Court Judge John J. Agostini in a jury-waived trial on Wednesday.
He was found not guilty by reason of insanity on single counts of second-degree murder, leaving the scene of a property-damage accident and operating to endanger.
Agostini ordered him committeed to Bridgewater State for observation and evaluation. Dozier's case will be back in court on June 30, 2009 for an update on the evaluation process.
The investigation was conducted by members of the Great Barrington Police Department, state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office and members of the state police Crime Scene Services Unit.
