Doubts Raised Over Accused Killer’s Sanity

A prosecutor Tuesday gave a municipal judge a 50-page police report, containing interviews with the accused killer of two Universal Studios security guards, that raises doubts about the suspect’s competency to stand trial.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris gave the sealed report to Municipal Judge David S. Milton during the arraignment of Nathan N. Trupp, 42, who has been charged with the Dec. 1 slayings of the two guards. Authorities said the killings occurred 2 days after Trupp allegedly shot three people to death in a bagel shop near his apartment in Albuquerque, N.M.

Norris said Trupp told investigators that he killed all five victims because he believed that they were Nazis and said he had gone to Universal Studios looking for actor Michael Landon. “His statements were: ‘I was seeking out Michael Landon; I was attempting to kill Michael Landon because he was a Nazi,’ ” Norris said.

Trupp was shot and captured by a sheriff’s deputy near the studios shortly after the two guards, Jeren Beeks, 27, and Armando Enrique Torres, 18, were fatally shot.

Trupp’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Steve Hobson, said he thinks Norris “has a question in his own mind about the competency of my client.”

A competency hearing for a suspect can only be requested by a defense attorney and ordered by a judge. But, Norris said, “Anybody can bring forward to the judge information on the question of competency. We have an obligation to do that.”

Norris said the district attorney’s office has taken no position on whether Trupp is competent to stand trial, but added: “I think anybody who would read through the reports would have doubts” about the suspect’s competency.

Trupp’s arraignment was continued until Dec. 22, and Norris asked Milton to read the police report in the meantime. Trupp, who was taken into court handcuffed to a wheelchair, sat quietly throughout the 10-minute hearing, only answering a few questions posed by Milton.

Hobson said he has had only brief conversations with his client. He said he has not decided whether to seek a competency hearing but has arranged for a psychiatric examination of Trupp.

“In general, he’s got problems,” Hobson said.

Trupp--who has had mental problems all his life, according to authorities--is being held without bail at the downtown county jail. If he is eventually ruled incompetent by a judge or jury, he will be treated at a state mental hospital until it is determined that he is fit to stand trial.

Authorities in Albuquerque have said they will not proceed against Trupp until the Los Angeles case is resolved.