Fuss, at a bench trial, was found guilty but mentally ill of murdering his mother. Evidence included inculpatory statements he had made when taken into custody in Arkansas. He did not dispute that he had planned and murdered his mother, taken money from her purse and then hitchhiked to Arkansas before surrendering to police and confessing. He maintained that the Trial Court should have found him insane at the time of the confession and held it not admissible.

The Court of Appeals noted that both defense and State offered expert testimony about Fuss's sanity at time of the killing. Both experts agreed that mentally ill persons even when psychotic have lucid intervals. The psychologist for Fuss at one point in his testimony was limited upon objection by the State as to the depth he could use in explaining how lucid intervals can occur in mentally ill, psychotic patients.

The Appeals Court held that the trial court had not abused its discretion in refusing to hear further testimony regarding the issue. The Court noted that Fuss had failed to preserve the issue, anyway, by not making an offer of proof to show how the refusal could have changed the court's final verdict.