OXNARD : Man, Ruled Insane in Slaying, Released

An Oxnard man judged not guilty by reason of insanity in a 1984 slaying was declared mentally fit to be released Monday and ordered discharged to a Los Angeles psychiatric outpatient clinic.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell ruled that Craig Eric Cummins, 34, was fit for release from the state psychiatric hospital where he had been locked up for treatment since being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the Nov. 17, 1984, slaying of his housemate.

Cummins, a heavy user of methamphetamine at the time of the slaying, strangled and beat to death Sonja Stromme, 25, who rented a room in the Oxnard house where Cummins lived, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald M. Grant.

“Somebody made the 911 call and when the police arrived, he was still out in front with the body,” Grant said. “He waived his rights and, in the most chilling interview I’ve ever heard, he said why he had to kill her: ‘Because she’s the Antichrist.’ ”

Cummins was committed to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino.

According to two psychiatrists who examined him soon after the slaying and again recently, Cummins now is ready for outpatient treatment after nearly eight years of treatment in the hospital’s locked wards, Grant said.

Grant said any violation of the strict conditions on which Cummins was released would result in his re-incarceration.

Deputy Public Defender Douglas Daily said Cummins was released on condition that he comply with treatment ordered by the staff at Gateways Hospital, a Los Angeles County outpatient home that has locked wards.

Campbell also ordered Cummins to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and to submit at request to blood or urine testing to ensure that he is not using drugs or alcohol, Daily said.

“I don’t think he remembers every detail about what happened,” Daily said. “He realized he’d done a terrible thing, and it’s been a very slow progression. . . . He was very tearful when he heard the judge’s decision” on Monday.