CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SANTA ANA : Man Ruled Insane in Killing Wife, Child

An electrical engineer was convicted of beating his wife and 13-month-old daughter to death with an empty champagne bottle. But Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno--who found Joseph Lynch, 44, guilty on two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Helen, 35, and their daughter, Natalie Alexandra--ruled the defendant was insane when he committed the crimes in the family’s Santa Ana home. Deputy Dist. Atty. James Cloninger said Lynch will be eligible for release from a state mental hospital when “his sanity is restored.”