Ex-Lawyer Convicted of Plot to Kill Father : U.S. Jury Rejects Insanity Plea; Defendant Hired FBI Agent Posing as ‘Hit Man’ for Two Murders

A federal court jury Monday rejected the insanity defense of a former Costa Mesa attorney and convicted him of contracting to kill his father and a former business associate two years ago.

Jurors deliberated less than an hour before finding Joseph Walter Shambaugh guilty of six felony counts stemming from his hiring an FBI agent posing as a “hit man” to commit the murders. Neither man was killed.

Following the verdict, U.S. District Judge John G. Davies ordered Shambaugh, 31, of Riverside, taken into custody pending a sentencing hearing Oct. 26.

Throughout the trial, Shambaugh’s attorney, Brent Carruth, maintained that his client suffered from hormonal imbalances and hyperactivity, which made him insane at the time he arranged for the murders.

‘Episodic Decontrol’

After the verdict was announced, Carruth said he thought that it was probably difficult for jurors to accept the defense’s unusual argument for insanity. Jurors were asked to believe that “episodic decontrol,” caused by hyperactivity, can make a person insane. Shambaugh has suffered from severe emotional problems since he was stricken with a brain inflammation at the age of 7, Carruth said.

Shambaugh faces a mandatory five-year sentence and a possible maximum of 30 years in prison, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jon C. Cederberg said. Cederberg told jurors during the trial that at the same time Shambaugh was supposed to be insane, he was representing a client during a trial in Los Angeles federal court.

According to the grand jury indictment, Shambaugh contacted a former client, William Henry Darnold, for help in hiring a hit man to commit the murders in the spring of 1985.

Darnold was serving a federal prison sentence for selling cocaine to an undercover agent when he aided Shambaugh in his quest for a hired gunman in February, 1985. Darnold arranged for Shambaugh to meet wiath a Beverly Hills man, who turned out to be an informant for the FBI. The informant subsequently set up a meeting between Shambaugh and an FBI agent posing as a hit man. Darnold, 64, died in June while still in prison.

Pistol Given to Agent

At their meeting in early 1985, Shambaugh gave the FBI agent an unregistered Luger pistol and two pairs of rubber gloves to commit the murders. Shambaugh agreed to pay at least $20,000 for the murder of his father, retired Anaheim attorney Walter Shambaugh, and Steven Szu Hong Sung, a former business associate of the younger Shambaugh.

Shambaugh was convicted of conspiracy, carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, possessing an unregistered firearm, and use of interstate commerce facilities with intent to commit murder for hire.

When FBI agents arrested Shambaugh in April, he had been working at a Costa Mesa law firm for only one day. Before that he had been in private practice, and about two years ago had practiced law with his father in Anaheim. Shambaugh was suspended from the State Bar in September, 1986, for failing to pay his bar dues, according to a spokeswoman for the bar in Los Angeles. Carruth said his client voluntarily stopped practicing law after being indicted.