North County : Not-Guilty Pleas Entered in Acid-Throwing Case
Mark Edward Hand was ordered Monday to stand trial May 12 on charges he splashed acid on a 4-year-old La Habra girl and her mother while they were on a family outing at a park in January.
The 26-year-old Whittier resident pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity during his arraignment before Superior Court Judge James O. Perez.
Hand is charged with assault with a caustic substance and assault with a deadly weapon growing out of the Jan. 18 attack on Rachel Ogawa and her mother, Elaine Ogawa, at Los Coyotes Regional Park in Buena Park.
Rachel and her mother were leaving a restroom when a man splashed them with what was later identified as acetic acid. The girl suffered first- and second-degree burns on her face, arms and chest.
Hand, who was arrested a short time later near his parents’ house in Whittier, had been under orders at the time of the assault to begin psychiatric evaluation in connection with his parole to California from a prison term he had served in Texas.
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