-Caveat Lector- "Mental illness" or mind control? ....only the CIA knows for sure!
~~~~~~~ Makino said he was persuaded by psychiatric experts that Hearn suffered from schizophrenia and believed he had orders from the government to kill dangerous people. <SNIP> " I just followed what the government said" *************** Los Angeles Times September 26, 2003 Friday Orange County Edition SECTION: California Metro; Part 2; Page 1; Metro Desk LENGTH: 592 words HEADLINE: O.C. Man in Racial Slaying Ruled Insane; White killer of Asian neighbor will be sent to mental hospital, not prison, judge decides. BYLINE: Daniel Yi, Times Staff Writer BODY: A Laguna Hills man who stabbed a 17-year-old Asian neighbor to death in a fit of ethnic hatred will not go to prison but will instead receive treatment for mental illness, a judge ruled Thursday. Christopher Hearn, 22, who can neither hear nor speak, was legally insane and could not tell right from wrong when he attacked Kenneth Chiu with a kitchen knife June 30, 2001, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino said. Chiu's father and sister were in court Thursday but indicated through a friend that they declined to comment. "This is a major blow to them," said Wilson Wang, who accompanied the Chius to Thursday's hearing. Hearn "is guilty of committing the crime, and now there is a possibility he might be walking free." Hearn's attorney and family members could not be reached for comment. This month, Makino convicted Hearn, who had waived his right to a jury trial, of first-degree murder and the special enhancements of lying in wait and targeting his victim because of ethnicity. Hearn is white; Chiu's parents were born in Taiwan. But Hearn, who could have been sentenced to life in prison without parole, had entered a plea of not guilty for reason of insanity. Sanity issues are decided after a defendant is found to have committed a crime. "I don't want anyone thinking this is absolving anyone," Makino was quoted by City News Service as having told the Santa Ana courtroom. "The question is, was he sane or insane based on the legal standards that we use?" Makino said he was persuaded by psychiatric experts that Hearn suffered from schizophrenia and believed he had orders from the government to kill dangerous people. According to court records, Hearn told police through a sign-language interpreter shortly after the stabbing that "Chinese and blacks have weapons." After the stabbing, "I just left, you know, proud," Hearn said, "that I acted like a Marine, like a KKK [Ku Klux Klan] person... It's not my fault. I just followed what the government said." Although Hearn is technically guilty, Thursday's ruling is tantamount to an acquittal because he will receive treatment rather than punishment, said Southwestern University School of Law professor Robert Pugsley, an expert on insanity pleas. But it is unlikely Hearn will be on the streets any time soon, he said. Those convicted of a crime but found not responsible because they are insane can be held in a mental institution until they are deemed no longer a threat, up to the duration of the sentence they would have gotten if found sane. In Hearn's case, that would be the rest of his life. The state Department of Mental Health will prepare a report on Hearn in 15 days and make a recommendation to Makino. If Hearn can show he is sane, he could be eligible for supervised release, Pugsley said, but early releases are rare in cases involving violent crimes. The Hearns and Chius had been neighbors for more than a decade. On the night of the murder, Hearn lured Chiu to his garage and after sharing a cigarette stabbed the teenager 26 times, authorities said. Chiu's father, Christopher Chiu, worried about his son's whereabouts and called his cell phone. The father heard the ringing coming from his frontyard and found his son in a pool of blood. Hearn's case stirred legal debate over the reading of Miranda rights to deaf suspects. Hearn's attorney had argued that his confession was inadmissible because the sign language interpreter was not court-certified. The judge, however, ruled against the defense. September 25, 2003, Thursday, BC cycle SECTION: State and Regional LENGTH: 375 words HEADLINE: Judge finds Laguna Hills man insane at time of racial slaying DATELINE: SANTA ANA, Calif. BODY: A deaf man convicted of murder was legally insane when he killed an Asian teenage neighbor out of racial hatred, a judge ruled Thursday. Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino found that Christopher Hearn, 22, of Laguna Hills, lived in a "distorted world" and could not appreciate the wrongness of his actions under the "legal standard that we use." Hearn was found guilty earlier this month in a non-jury trial of murdering Kenneth Chiu, 17, along with the special enhancements of lying in wait and targeting the victim because of his ethnicity. "In my mind this is not an issue of being responsible for this," Makino said. "He's been found guilty of murdering" Chiu and killing him "because of Kenny Chiu's race." "The question is: Was he sane or insane based on the legal standards that we use?" Makino said. "I think it's pretty obvious that I'm finding he was insane. I don't want anyone thinking this is absolving anyone." Testimony showed that Hearn had "mild" racist beliefs in junior high school that worsened as he developed schizophrenia until he reached a point where he felt he was being ordered by the government to kill dangerous people, Makino said. A recommendation on where Hearn should be sent for treatment should be received within 15 days, Makino said. Hearn will be evaluated at the Orange County Jail and the judge will receive a yearly report once he's committed to a hospital, said Deputy Public Defender Lisa Kopelman. "If doctors make a determination that he is sane and a jury concurs, he can get out," she said. Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Carlisle-Raines said that Hearn had a racist belief system and dismissed the notion that drug use led to a psychosis. "He says flat out that in his freshman year in high school, he had two interests, marijuana and white power," Carlisle-Raines said. "This is what he actually says and it is completely discounted and thrown away," she said. Hearn stabbed Chiu about midnight July 30, 2001, as Chiu returned from a date. Chiu identified Hearn as the attacker before he died. Investigators videotaped a sign-language interview of Hearn, who is deaf and cannot speak, and he said that he stabbed Chiu and hated Asians and other ethnic minorities. ===== ABErnathy, MARtin F. >> Providence, RI >> 09/28/03 www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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