Escondido

Confessed killer Steve Larsen, who was found innocent by reason of insanity in the 1986 shooting of Escondido physician Craig Blundell, will find out Friday whether he will be released from Patton State Hospital to a treatment program in San Diego.

Larsen, a one-time Eagle Scout, was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic after the shooting of the popular internist. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the physician’s shooting, but testimony showed he had shot the doctor while in a paranoid delusion that Dr. Blundell was part of a conspiracy by the Central Intelligence Agency and Arco Corp., a former employer, to deprive him of his disability benefits. He was committed to Patton for an indeterminate term.

Last September, Patton doctors recommended that Larsen be released to a halfway house program, and two court-appointed San Diego psychiatrists have since agreed. On Friday, Escondido relatives of the dead physician and their supporters packed the San Diego Superior Court chambers of Judge William D. Mudd, wearing “CRAIG” signs to oppose Larsen’s release from the state mental hospital.

Judge Mudd, who delayed a hearing on the issue until Friday, admonished the crowd that filled the courtroom against wearing any signs or otherwise indicating their sentiments.

Larsen, 35, has spent about four years in the state hospital for the criminally insane. If he had been found guilty instead of innocent by reason of insanity, he could have been sentenced a term of 27 years to life in state prison.