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March 17, 2003
Judge deals Doyle maximum sentence
by Amiko Nevills
UHCLIDIAN STAFF

The sentencing trial was originally set for March 3 but was delayed due to excessive court cases. Doyle received the maximum penalty under his plea.

"The judge sentenced him to 25 years and ordered that he be given medical and psychiatric help," said Doyle's attorney Kevin West, who had represented Doyle since October 2001. "This [sentence] is what Patrick expected."

Doyle will be transported to a psychiatric institution under the care of the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange, Ky., where he will serve his sentence while he receives extensive mental health treatment.

Bowling Green police arrested Doyle at his mother's home in Kentucky. According to police records, Doyle confessed to bludgeoning his stepfather to death with a hammer.

Upon indictment, Doyle pleaded innocent and later filed a motion to appoint himself as co-counsel. West said Doyle decided to withdraw this motion and entered a new plea.

To avoid additional hardship on his and the victim's family and cause further embarrassment to entities he was associated with, Doyle changed his plea to guilty but mentally ill at a Feb. 21 hearing.

Circuit Judge Thomas Lewis accepted his plea, overruling the advice of KCPC psychiatrist David Capley, who claimed Doyle was incompetent after performing a pre-trial mental evaluation.

"Several former students and colleagues have contacted [Doyle] through me by e-mail, sending him their concerns," West said. "At some point, he will want to address them, but at this time, there is no general statement he wishes to send to the university."

Doyle was employed by UH-Clear Lake from 1975 to 2002. He taught classes in clinical practicum and clinical psychology and hosted several workshops dealing in stress and anger management.

Katherine Justice, director of Human Resources, said Doyle voluntarily resigned from the college April 30, 2002.

During his tenure with the university, Doyle invented Bio-Games, a biofeedback software that promotes stress-relieving techniques,

The first product Doyle developed as a series of games, Bio-Ball, a video baseball game, incited an intellectual property dispute with UH-Clear Lake in 2000 over legal ownership rights.

Doyle disclosed two inventions related to his biofeedback software to the university, one of which was for Bio-Ball, Feb. 7, 2000, and another April 12, 2001, about one month before the murder said John Warren, associate vice-chancellor for Intellectual Property management.

"He was hard to deal with," Warren said. "There was a lot going on in his life at the time."

Doyle claimed to have netted $1.3 million on the software, which is no longer under litigation with the UH System.

"What the committee finally decided to do, was to return the technology to the inventor," Warren said.

The Intellectual Property committee opted to return the technology since officials could not verify what, if any amount, Doyle had netted and could not protect the technology Warren said. The university has not seen any monies related to the biofeedback software.

Although Doyle pleaded guilty but mentally ill, he has not been formally declared incompetent.

"Because [Doyle] has not been declared incompetent, at this time, he presides over his estate," West said.

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