Accused Claims Insanity in Elgar Killings : Crime: Larry T. Hansel admits guilt in the 1991 shooting rampage that left two executives of the company dead.

Claiming he was insane at the time of the attack, laid-off electronics technician Larry T. Hansel pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of murdering two executives during a shooting rampage last year at Elgar Corp.

Hansel, 42, admitted his guilt to San Diego Superior Court Judge Herbert J. Exarhos, who warned that Hansel may be sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison.

Hansel, however, is betting that a jury will find that he was insane when he brandished a shotgun and methodically stalked high-level Elgar employees on June 4, 1991 at the San Diego business.

Even if found to be insane, Hansel may be “hospitalized in a state institution for as long as his life,” Exarhos also warned.

Hansel, wearing a dark blue, jail-issue jumpsuit, said little during the court hearing. “Guilty” was his reply to eight separate charges. He also said he understood the ramifications of admitting to the crimes.

John Jones, Elgar’s 48-year-old vice president and general manager, and 46-year-old Michael Krowitz, the firm’s regional sales manager, were killed when Hansel blasted them with a shotgun during the mid-afternoon massacre.

As part of his plea, Hansel also admitted setting off explosions as a diversion and to shooting the company’s switchboard as he entered the plant.

Hansel’s attorney, Alex Loebig Jr., said two court psychiatrists and two other doctors have determined that Hansel was insane.

“While he is psychotic and remains psychotic, he is competent,” Loebig told the judge.

Asked to explain this statement outside the courtroom, Loebig said, “The distinction is he doesn’t have the kind of mental illness that obliterates his ability to function in everyday life.”

Loebig said Hansel was competent to understand the charges against him, but he was driven by an insane obsession with communism and religious beliefs.

“I think it’s going to be proven . . . that when he walked in there, he didn’t know what he was doing was morally wrong and, indeed, he was trying to save the world from nuclear catastrophe and world communism,” Loebig said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg McClain scoffed at the idea that Hansel was insane at the time of the shootings.

“In terms of the guy on the street, of which Larry Hansel was, he knew what he was doing, and he knew it was wrong--and that’s all there is to it,” McClain said.

Although conceding that Hansel “suffers from some ‘mental disorder,’ ” McClain argued that Hansel’s statements and actions demonstrate that he understood what he was doing.

“He knew who he was looking for, he knew where he was going, he planned it out perfectly, and, when he gets done, he doesn’t know what to do?” McClain said. “He has a dilemma because he knows what he has done is wrong.”

Testimony at Hansel’s preliminary hearing indicated that he calmly rode a bicycle away from Elgar and turned himself in to Riverside County sheriff’s deputies two hours later.

Although Hansel targeted five Elgar supervisors during the attack--which came three months after he was laid off--Loebig denied that his client was a disgruntled former employee.

“He was obsessively--to the nth degree--concerned with world events as he interpreted them,” Loebig said while explaining the motive for the crime.

He added that Hansel had found a new job after being laid off and had been a successful employee at several firms for many years.

Exarhos scheduled a sanity trial for June 15. If the jury finds that Hansel was sane, he will be sent to prison for the rest of his life.

But, if the jury concludes that Hansel was insane, he will be sent to a state mental institution, where he will be held until doctors are satisfied that he has recovered from his illness, which may not happen the rest of his life.

Hansel pleaded guilty to every count and admitted every allegation charged by prosecutors. In addition to the two murder counts, he pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder, two counts of possession of explosive devices and one count of burglary. He admitted to the special circumstance of multiple murders and admitted that he used a gun during six of the crimes.