Disorientation Defense Rejected in Vista Man’s Knife Attack on Family

A Vista Superior Court jury Thursday convicted Herman Cegers of assault with a deadly weapon for his knife attack on his sister and his son, rejecting a defense position that Cegers was too disoriented and confused--having been intoxicated and in a deep sleep--to know what he was doing.

Cegers, 44, could receive a maximum of 10 years in state prison when he is sentenced May 24 by Superior Court Judge Charles Hayes.

“He is responsible for his actions,” said juror Dennis Fox of Escondido after 1 1/2 days of deliberations.

Cegers’ sister, Diane Head, his son, Charles Cegers, and his son’s girlfriend, Naomi Zayas, broke into Cegers’ apartment last September, the morning after the elder Cegers kicked his son and girlfriend out of his home.

Cegers said he was in a deep sleep on floor cushions--tests later showed he was heavily intoxicated--when he was awakened after someone stepped on his foot. Reacting virtually unconsciously to the sight of the three shadowy figures in his home, Cegers said, he grabbed two kitchen knives and repelled the three people, forcing them from the home.

The younger Cegers was stabbed in the back and suffered a punctured lung, and Head suffered a flesh wound to her shoulder, as they backpedaled to the front door and struggled to get outside, according to testimony.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Donovan had asked that Cegers be convicted of attempted first-degree murder, based on the fact that the man had made previous threats on his son’s life.

But Donovan told jurors after the trial, “I think you were exactly right” with the verdict on the lesser charge.

Among the defense witnesses in the trial was Merrill Mitler, director of research at the sleep-disorder center at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, who said that, based on jailhouse testing, Cegers suffered a mild form of sleep apnea, in which breathing stops during sleep.

Among the symptoms of sleep apnea--symptoms that are even more likely when coupled with the effects of alcohol--are confusion and disorientation upon awakening, Mitler told the jury last week.

Without specifically diagnosing what Cegers may have suffered last September, Mitler said people inflicted with sleep apnea can perform “automatic behavior”--physical activity that may reflect no sense or reason.

Defense attorney Barbara McDonald argued that case to the jury, saying Cegers was in a virtually unconscious state that saw him react physically, but without thought, toward the perceived intruders after he was abruptly awakened.

“If your sleep is disturbed--someone steps on you--and all you see are shadows, suddenly your worst fears are realized--that someone had broken into your house,” McDonald told the jury. “He jumped up,” grabbed the knives and confronted the perceived intruders, not knowing who they were.

But jurors discounted that reasoning, saying it was unbelievable that Cegers didn’t recognize his own son and sister--especially since they had called out to him in his family nickname, “Greasy.”

“He may not have been totally aware of what was happening,” said juror Fox, “but he should have known some.”

Fox said jurors didn’t give much credence to the suggestion that sleep apnea played a role in Cegers’ actions. “If anything,” said Fox, “he was more affected by the alcohol.”

Jurors noted that, after the three people broke into Cegers’ house, they talked first to Willie Mayes, who lived with Cegers, before Cegers himself was awakened.

“They did come looking for trouble,” Fox said of the three, “and they got it. But we think the results would have been the same, whether they came in through the window or were invited in through the front door.”

Undisclosed to the jury during the trial was that Cegers pleaded guilty 21 years ago to second-degree murder in San Diego after he shot another man in the stomach, finishing a feud over a girlfriend.