Jury to start deliberating in trial of retired barber accused of killing Newport doctor in his office

An Orange County Superior Court jury will begin deliberating Monday in the trial of a 79-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a urologist in the doctor’s Newport Beach office in 2013.

The jury is being asked to consider whether Stanwood Elkus, a retired barber from Lake Elsinore, committed murder by plotting and consciously carrying out the killing of Dr. Ronald Gilbert of Huntington Beach, or if he was acting as a result of brain damage and under the influence of medication that made him aggressive.

Elkus is facing a special-circumstances murder charge with a possible sentencing enhancement involving use of a firearm. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, according to court records.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy told jurors during closing statements Thursday that Elkus was enraged and fixated on an unsuccessful prostate surgery performed 21 years earlier when he drove to Gilbert’s office and shot him. Elkus blamed the operation for incontinence, erectile dysfunction, diminished sex drive and the loss of a steady girlfriend.

“He figures he has nothing left to lose,” Murphy said. “He puts his affairs in order and he goes to settle that score.”

However, Elkus’ defense attorney Colleen O’Hara said her client was not in a coherent state of mind the day of the shooting. Elkus, she said, has dementia and severe brain damage that affects his inhibitions and impulse control. She said Elkus did not intend to harm the doctor when he made an appointment with him, but that an anti-depressant he had begun taking weakened his inhibitions and led to the deadly shooting.

O’Hara cited a video of Elkus speaking with police immediately after the shooting in which he complains about his prostate.

“He just killed a man and he’s talking about his prostate,” she told jurors. “There’s something wrong with this man. Mr. Elkus is not playing with a full deck.”

If the jury renders a guilty verdict, the trial would move to the sanity phase in which jurors would be asked to determine whether Elkus is legally insane.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN