A forensic psychologist testified about psychosis and delusional disorder before Trevor John Huber was sentenced.
KENNETT, Mo. — A Missouri judge found Trevor John Huber guilty of first-degree murder after hearing evidence that he believed his mother was poisoning him and had shown signs of methamphetamine-induced psychosis.
The bench trial in Dunklin County ended with a life-without-parole sentence for Huber, 43, of Cardwell. His mother, Charlotte Wilson, 63, was killed Dec. 21, 2018, at a home on North Main Street in Cardwell. The case forced the court to weigh graphic physical evidence and Huber’s own statements against testimony that he had symptoms tied to drug use and delusional thinking. Circuit Judge Josh Underwood found the state had proved first-degree murder.
The mental-health evidence was not a side issue. Defense records said a forensic psychologist testified that Huber showed evidence of methamphetamine-induced psychosis. The same expert diagnosed him with delusional disorder. The psychologist could not determine whether both conditions contributed to Wilson’s killing. That uncertainty left the court with a narrow but important question: whether evidence of psychosis and delusions changed Huber’s legal responsibility for what happened inside the Cardwell home.
Huber’s statements gave the court another view of his mental state. After deputies arrested him and advised him of his rights, he told investigators that he believed Wilson was trying to kill him with poison. He also said he had used methamphetamine in the days before the killing. Investigators said he wrote “I killed my mother” on a piece of paper, tore the paper into pieces and swallowed it. The statement connected him to the killing while also showing conduct that defense filings placed in the context of confusion and possible impairment. The scene evidence gave prosecutors a separate foundation from the mental-health testimony. Court records said Wilson had been hit five to seven times in the head with a blunt object before she was decapitated with a knife after death. Investigators found a bloody knife and a slag hammer on the kitchen table. Deputies had gone to the home after Huber called 911 and asked for an officer to come there. When they arrived, he answered the door naked and appeared disoriented.
Defense filings noted that Huber did not flee, hide Wilson’s body, clean the home or conceal the tools. Those facts were important because they could be read as signs that Huber was not acting like a person trying to avoid arrest. They also placed him inside the home with the evidence visible when officers arrived. The judge had to consider both meanings. In the end, the court treated the conduct after the killing as part of the whole record, not as a fact that defeated the charge.
The poisoning claim was also limited by the evidence available in public records. There is no public account showing that investigators found Wilson had poisoned Huber or tried to do so. The claim is recorded as Huber’s belief, which the defense connected to his mental condition and methamphetamine use. The court had to separate what Huber said he believed from what the evidence showed happened to Wilson. The verdict indicates that Underwood found the belief did not legally excuse or reduce Huber’s responsibility for the killing.
First-degree murder requires more than proof that a person died by violence. It requires proof tied to the defendant’s mental state and conduct under the law. In Huber’s case, prosecutors pointed to the repeated blows, the use of a knife after Wilson was dead, the weapons found at the scene and Huber’s statements afterward. The defense pointed to psychosis, delusional disorder, drug use and disorientation. Underwood, sitting without a jury, found the prosecution’s proof carried the burden.
The trial took place May 18 and May 19, 2026, more than seven years after Wilson’s death. The time span meant that records, expert review and witness testimony had to carry the case long after the initial emergency response. Huber was 36 when the killing happened and 43 when he was sentenced. The available record does not explain every reason for the delay. It does show that the case involved forensic mental-health questions that were still present when the judge reached the final verdict.
Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas Jain said after sentencing that he wanted to thank the Dunklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol for their “professional and diligent work” investigating and solving the homicide. The statement focused on the agencies that gathered and presented the case, not on the mental-health testimony. It came after the court entered the conviction and sentence, making Huber’s life-without-parole term the formal outcome of the prosecution.
The case shows how mental-state evidence can remain part of the record even when it does not change the verdict. Huber’s reported psychosis, diagnosis and statements about poison were all part of the public account. So were the 911 call, Wilson’s injuries, the weapons on the table and the swallowed confession note. The judge’s decision did not erase the evidence of disturbance. It found that the evidence, viewed together, still supported first-degree murder under Missouri law. As of Thursday, June 18, 2026, Huber remains convicted and sentenced to life without parole for Wilson’s death. Any next step would have to come through post-trial litigation, including a possible appeal or later filing challenging the conviction or sentence.
Author note: Last updated June 18, 2026.