Hospital liable after discharged patient ‘violently’ kills neighbor, CO suit says
A neighbor turned up unannounced at Bonnie Young’s home in southern Colorado in 2023, and roughly an hour later Young’s husband found her with fatal wounds from a brutal attack, a new lawsuit says.
The 64-year-old mother of three had been stabbed and shot, according to the lawsuit filed April 4.
The neighbor, David Freilino, is accused in the killing, and Young’s husband is suing the hospital that treated Freilino the day before, saying Young was “violently” killed as “a direct and proximate result of” the “failure to place a mental health hold,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit names Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center, as well as Health Solutions, which provided psychiatric and behavioral health staff to the hospital by contract, as defendants.
A spokesperson for Spanish Peaks declined to comment to McClatchy News in an April 11 phone call, and a Health Solutions spokesperson declined to comment in an April 11 email to McClatchy News.
Freilino was taken to the hospital April 4, 2023, after deputies responded to his Huerfano County home because he “was experiencing a psychotic episode,” the complaint said.
At the hospital, he showed “signs that he required a higher level of professional health and was an imminent danger to himself and others,” according to the complaint.
But “at no point during” his stay “did a psychiatrist or other mental health professional speak with the deputies concerning the circumstances surrounding (his) involuntary transport,” the complaint said.
He was medically cleared without the required psychiatric screening and evaluation, it said.
Providers “knew or should have known that” Freilino needed immediate in-hospital treatment and that he posed a danger to himself or others, according to the complaint.
The next day, Freilino kicked down Young’s front door, the complaint said.
Young and one of her daughters were alone there, and Freilino dragged Young into the front yard, “where he stabbed and shot her multiple times,” according to the complaint.
Freilino eventually pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, World Journal reported.
His next court appearance is set for April 17, according to online court records.
Freilino’s attorney said in an April 11 email to McClatchy News that he was unable to comment on the criminal case or civil lawsuit.
The firm Ramos Law is representing Young’s husband, Ronald, in the civil lawsuit, which seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages.
On a GoFundMe page, a family friend described Bonnie Young as having “a huge heart.”
She “selflessly touched a whole community with her wisdom and grace. Her commitment to her family, sense of humor, wisdom and beauty will be greatly missed,” the friend wrote.
Huerfano County is about a 110-mile drive south from Colorado Springs.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Hospital liable after discharged patient ‘violently’ kills neighbor, CO suit says."
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