Accused Slayer Called Obsessed by Social Worker

As David Smith was charged formally Thursday with the slaying of his psychiatric social worker, newly filed court documents detailed the suspect’s murderous obsession with his victim and the inability of the judicial and mental health systems to prevent Smith’s lethal outburst.

According to 30 pages of police crime and interview reports filed by prosecutors in Santa Monica Superior Court, Smith, 26, admitted to homicide detectives Wednesday that he killed 36-year-old Robbyn Panitch because he saw her as the “Antichrist” and felt frustrated that she was unable to assist him.

The documents also revealed that Smith had threatened Panitch, and that the social worker feared he was capable of “assaultive behavior.”

Detective Shane Talbot, who interrogated Smith, said that Smith waived his constitutional Miranda protections from self-incrimination during an interview that lasted an hour and 45 minutes.

According to the police documents, Panitch wanted Smith committed for a 72-hour observation period in a hospital psychiatric setting. But a court-appointed psychiatrist who evaluated Smith earlier this month “indicated that Smith was not gravely disabled and did not warrant a 72-hour hold.”

A county mental health worker who came into contact with Smith over the last two months told The Times on Thursday that, after a public outburst on a Santa Monica street Jan. 3, Smith had been committed for such a 72-hour hold in the psychiatric emergency room at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. When the holding period ended, Smith was released, said the worker, who requested anonymity.

Calvin Kwan, an assistant administrator at Harbor-UCLA, declined to verify whether Smith was treated at the center, citing regulations to protect patient privacy.

Dr. J. Richard Elpers, a professor of psychiatry at the hospital, said that “the resident who saw the patient in the (emergency room) was very good. I’m confident he did a good job. We did not make a mistake in this case.”

Elpers said that evaluations of disturbed patients can be difficult because they “become dangerous for brief periods of time in their lives” and may not be acting out their hostility during the period that they are under observation.

The county mental health worker who saw Smith before he was committed to Harbor-UCLA on Jan. 3 said that Smith was in a jail cell, “talking to a pen as if it was an individual--as if God’s voice was emanating from it.”

‘Gave Me the Willies’

Concluding that Smith “was clearly psychotic,” the mental health worker watched as Smith was transported from the jail cell on a gurney, strapped by leather restraints. “I’ve been doing this a long time,” the worker said. “and this guy gave me the willies.”

Panitch was stabbed 31 times Tuesday in her office at the Santa Monica West Mental Health Service. Co-workers responding to her screams pulled Smith off her and held him until police arrived, authorities said.

In the hours after Smith was arrested, he told detectives that he had killed her with a folding knife he had purchased to protect himself “on the streets,” police said.

Smith told police he saw Panitch talking on the telephone and attacked her with the knife, stabbing “her multiple times.”

According to the interview reports, Smith believed that Panitch looked like a childhood friend he believed was the Antichrist. Smith also was “tired and scared of living on the street” and was “extremely angry” at Panitch for not finding him shelter.

Smith told the detectives, according to the documents, that Panitch told him in a counseling session a week before that “Tuesday was going to be his day. Smith took this to mean that Panitch was going to kill him on Tuesday, and in order to save himself he must kill Panitch.”

Reservation at Jump Street

Mental health workers said they had difficulty placing Smith in residences. Panitch had made a Jan. 27 reservation for Smith at Jump Street, a county-funded facility for mentally ill homeless patients. Officials at the residence said Smith never showed up for the two-week program.

Thomas Flaherty, Panitch’s fiancee, told police that Smith was “not receptive to instructions” to take medication for his precarious mental condition. Flaherty said that Smith threatened Panitch after he appeared in Santa Monica Municipal Court last Friday, four days before the attack.

The hearing resulted in the re-instatement of Smith’s probation stemming from a conviction for the 1987 assault of his mother. He was urged at the hearing to seek psychiatric help at the Brentwood Veterans Administration facility. Smith served two years in the Air Force and was discharged in 1983.

Considered Dangerous

In court papers, police also said that a psychiatrist at Panitch’s clinic believed that Smith was dangerous. Ralph Mitchell, the acting director of the clinic, told police that the psychiatrist thought “Smith was a serious threat without receiving proper medication.”

On Thursday night, county health professionals and social workers gathered in Santa Monica for a candlelight vigil in Panitch’s memory and a march protesting proposed funding cuts for county mental health services.

At the request of Smith’s public defender, Lianne Edmonds, Municipal Judge Laurence Rubin postponed Smith’s arraignment until March 2.

Times staff writers Ron Soble and Claire Spiegel contributed to this article.