The Region - News from Nov. 12, 1985

A Santa Barbara man accused of murdering his parents, sister and niece claims that he “flipped out” and was obeying messages from television when he carried out the killings. Barry Wayne McNamara, 37, who has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, made the assertions to Dr. Donald Slutzky and Dr. James H. Wells during court-ordered psychiatric examinations. The doctors, who concluded McNamara was insane at the time, are expected to provide key testimony during McNamara’s trial, which begins today in Santa Barbara Superior Court. “I just flipped out one night,” McNamara is quoted as saying in Wells’ report. “I heard some messages on the television to tell me to kill them . . . ‘kill them or it will be bad for you.’ ” McNamara said he grabbed a hunting rifle and first shot Elger Wayne McNamara, 57; then his niece, Kelly Brooke Trenner, 4; his sister, Diane McNamara Trenner, 31, and finally his mother, Florence Barbara McNamara, 56. Then, he said, he went outside to work on his car.