Suspect Pleads Insanity in Death of Wife, Child : Santa Ana

A Santa Ana man who had admitted to police that he killed his wife and their infant daughter in January has entered an insanity plea in Orange County Superior Court.

Joseph Peter Lynch, 43, in custody at the Orange County Jail, had been treated for depression at the time of the killings. He will now be examined by court-appointed psychiatrists, which could mean a delay in his Dec. 12 trial date.

Santa Ana police found the body of 35-year-old Helen Lynch and their 13-month-old daughter, Natalie Alexandra, at the couple’s condominium in the 700 block of West 1st Street on Jan. 17, 1989. Lynch’s wife had been bludgeoned to death, and the daughter died two days later.

Lynch at first blamed a neighbor for the crime, but soon admitted he was responsible. The officers testified that Lynch told them he had beaten his wife with an empty champagne bottle following an argument and that the child inadvertently had received blows while in her mother’s arms. Two other daughters were asleep at the time.

Because Lynch, who is an electrical engineer, is accused of multiple murders, he could receive the death penalty, or a minimum of life without parole, if convicted. Even if jurors acquit Lynch on grounds that he was insane, he could be committed to a state hospital for life.