Hearing for Suspect in Slayings Ordered

Nathan N. Trupp will be given a court hearing to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial on charges of killing two Universal Studios security guards, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.

Judge David S. Milton ordered the hearing at the arraignment of Trupp, 42, who told police he killed the guards Dec. 1 because he thought they were Nazis. Trupp, a former mental patient, is also suspected of slaying three people in Albuquerque, N.M.

Arraignment Suspended

Milton ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Trupp and suspended his arraignment until after the hearing, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 10.

Trupp’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Steve Hobson, told Milton that Trupp was mentally ill and unable to help with his defense. Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris did not object to the order granting the competency hearing.

Hobson said after the hearing that he has interviewed Trupp and members of his family, gathered records on his previous mental problems and had a psychiatrist examine him.

“After reviewing all of the facts of the case . . . we have come to the conclusion he is not competent,” Hobson said. “He is irrational most of the time.”

Milton said he had reviewed a 50-page package of police reports containing statements Trupp made to authorities and concluded that there is doubt as to Trupp’s ability to understand the charges against him, the central issue in a competency case.

Police Reports

“The court does believe that there is doubt, with respect to the defendant’s competency to appreciate the nature of the proceedings and assist his attorney,” said Milton, who ordered the police reports sealed from public view.

If Trupp is eventually ruled incompetent, he will be housed at a state mental hospital until it is determined that he is fit to stand trial.

Trupp was shot three times during a brief exchange of gunfire with a sheriff’s deputy before his capture near Universal Studios. Unshaven since his arrest and with his arm still in a sling, Trupp sat shackled and silent through the brief hearing Thursday. Hobson said his client, who is being held without bail, is on medication for his wounds.

Trupp is charged with the murders of guards Jeren Becks, 27, and Armando Torres, 18. The two were gunned down at the main entrance to Universal shortly after they turned away Trupp, who had asked to see actor Michael Landon.

Three Slain

Two days earlier, authorities said, Trupp entered an Albuquerque bagel shop and shot three members of the family that operated the business. Killed were Jeanne Wilt, 37; her husband, Richard Wilt, 38, and her father, Joseph Famiglietta, 63.

Authorities said Trupp told investigators that he killed all five and sought out Landon because he believed they were Nazis.

Trupp, who had been hospitalized at least twice before the killings because of mental problems, has not yet been charged in Albuquerque, where authorities have said they will let the Los Angeles case proceed first.