Staff Writer

Steven H. Bronson Jr., the suspect in the June 1979 murder of Norma Thomas Page, a St. Cloud housewife and mother of two young boys, may never see his day in court after his trial was postponed Thursday pending another evaluation of his competence to stand trial.

Three mental health professionals, two of whom were privately retained by public defender Robert Wesley, found Bronson, 63, incompetent to assist in his defense, due to a deteriorating mental state caused by a series of strokes Bronson suffered in 2003, among other, undisclosed medical issues.

“There will never be closure, ever,” Adam Page, Norma Page’s eldest son, who was present during his mother’s murder, said. “We anticipated this outcome. It’s in God’s hands and we’re comfortable with that.”

Testimony Thursday in Ninth Judicial Circuit Judge Scott Polodna’s courtroom in the Osceola County Courthouse in Kissimmee painted a picture of Bronson’s mental state, a “drag race with dementia,” Wesley called it, as expert mental health professionals noted a decline in Bronson’s mental state since his incarceration in December.

While Bronson appears normal in a layman’s view, court-appointed expert witness Daniel P. Tressler said damage to Bronson’s “organic brain matter” from the strokes make him “prone to confabulation,” a psychology term meaning a person fills in the blanks with false statements they believe are true.

Tressler described confabulation as “different from lying” and “a process sometimes seen in brain-damaged individuals.”

“Mr. Bronson is well-intact but his ability to process information and use it intelligently is compromised,” Tressler said. “On the surface, he would appear to be coherent.”

State prosecutor Ken Lewis argued the last two experts’ reports could have been “tainted” by reading the reports of the expert before them. Lewis claimed the state did not get the chance to sit in on the examinations of Bronson, which were held from March to May and lasted, on occasion, more than three hours.

“This procedure was not done in compliance with the rules,” Lewis said.

After hearing testimony from the three expert psychology witnesses – Tressler and Jeffery A. Danziger, both based in Central Florida, and Miami-based Bruce Frumkin – Judge Polodna allowed the prosecution one additional competency evaluation.

“At this point, we will not be going forward on Monday with the trial,” Polodna said, slowing Bronson’s right to a speedy trial and setting a June 24 hearing to finalize the suspect’s competency status.

Kay Myers, Page’s sister who spent 30 years pushing police to solve the case, sat in the front row during the hearing, listening to the proceedings unfold inside Polodna’s fifth floor courtroom.

“I’m frustrated because we got the man; it’s all technical after that,” Myers said. “(Bronson) knows how to work the system in his favor. That’s how he got out (of jail) three months before he killed my sister.”

The experts testified Bronson understands who the attorneys and judge are and the roles they play; the first-degree murder charge against him; and why he was charged with Page’s murder (DNA evidence found at the crime scene).

Frumkin, who was retained by Wesley at $250 an hour, pointed out Bronson appears able to maintain his composure in the courtroom, however, the suspect is “very at risk” of changing his response if asked a similar question repeatedly.

Bronson “shifts responses” when asked a question a second time, Frumkin testified by phone.

Danziger testified about “deficits” in Bronson’s memory, hearing and sight “related to his age, the strokes and his medical state.”

Myers and Page’s cousin, Cheryl Hickman, while displeased a trial may not occur, were buoyed by Bronson’s arrest and taped confession, which the defense moved to suppress last month.

“I’ve had a marathon of emotions,” Myers said. “We had her for 28 short years and the last four were the happiest of her life, as a mother.”

Page was home with her two young sons, ages 2 and 4, when Bronson allegedly approached her while she was hanging up clothes at her Tennessee Avenue parsonage for the Church of the Nazarene.

Page and her sons, Adam and Stevie, were then forced into the family car to drive to a local bank to cash Page’s husband’s paycheck; Rev. Jim Page was at a Lake County religious retreat at the time of the murder.

The boys were locked in their parents’ bedroom after they returned home and Page was forced into the boys’ bedroom, where a two-pound glass ketchup bottle was shattered over her head and she was stabbed 34 times.

Bronson was never considered a suspect until his DNA was discovered on several articles of clothing left at the crime scene, including a bathing suit top and a toddler’s T-shirt.

Bronson, who was well known by local police to dress in drag and legally changed his name to Nancy Sue Bronson at one time, was arrested in December at the nursing home where he lived.

“I started feeling closure when I got the call Dec. 28 (that Bronson was arrested),” Myers said. “We’ve got to stop somewhere as a family. I’ve come at peace.”