Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COURTS : Man Receives 13-Year Sentence for Acid Attack

Mark Edward Hand told a court-appointed psychiatrist that Satan told him to toss acid in the face of 4-year-old Rachel Ogawa.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan sentenced Hand, 26, of La Habra to 13 years in prison for the assault on the La Habra child.

Hand, who withdrew an insanity defense over the objection of his attorney, was sentenced to the maximum term. Hand had been convicted of attacking Rachel Ogawa and her mother, Elaine Ogawa, as the two left a restroom at Los Coyotes Regional Park in Buena Park on Jan. 18.

After Hand’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Diana Polos, told the jury that the sanity issue would be the thrust of Hand’s defense, Hand decided to withdraw his insanity plea.

Polos said later that Hand feared he would end up spending more time in a hospital than he would in prison.

Rachel, meanwhile, is recovering from serious facial burns and may need further surgery because of a damaged esophagus. Hand threw acetic acid at her at a close range from two paper cups. Some of it went down the girl’s throat.

Hand had been on parole from a Texas prison on a burglary conviction. A condition of his parole to California was that he seek psychiatric help.

At Hand’s sentencing, Polos asked for a lighter sentence because Hand was obviously mentally disturbed.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan Sturla said later he is convinced that Hand was not insane at the time of the attack, despite the fact that Hand “obviously suffers some kind of of psychiatric illness.”