Murder charge filed: Court documents detail alleged incident at Fulton State Hospital

by Jacob Richey, KOMU 8 Digital Content Editor

Charges including first-degree murder have been filed against the suspect in a deadly assault between two patients at the Fulton State Hospital last week, court records show.

Jabril Kanatzar, 29, was charged Friday with first-degree murder and fourth-degree assault in connection to the death of another patient after an alleged assault at the hospital on Jan. 6.

Video footage from a common room at the hospital allegedly shows Kanatzar watching the victim, identified by the Fulton Police Department as 53-year-old Christos Karagiannis, for about five minutes, according to court documents. The video then shows Kanatzar come up behind Karagiannis, punch him in the back of the head, then stomp on Karagiannis’ head area five times after he fell to the ground, court documents allege.

Another person came up to stop Kanatzar, the video shows, and Kanatzar allegedly punched that person then stomped on the victim’s head area two more times, court documents allege.

Karagiannis was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died in the hospital two days later after he was taken off life support, according to Fulton police.

Police were notified of the alleged attack nearly 24 hours after the time it reportedly happened, according to court documents.

Police said Friday that Kanatzar was being held in a secure facility with no bond.