Insanity Plea Considered by Hilbun Lawyer

Orange County’s top public defender said Sunday that his office will conduct a “very thorough” review of whether fired postal worker Mark Richard Hilbun should enter an insanity plea in connection with last week’s murderous rampage.

“That plea is certainly possible,” Public Defender Ronald Y. Butler said in an interview. “Anybody who has followed that case would probably say it’s likely, but I can’t go that far.”

Hilbun, fired from the U.S. Postal Service in December in part because he allegedly stalked a co-worker for months, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel on two counts of murder and at least three counts of attempted murder.

In a series of attacks that terrorized residents in coastal regions of Orange County for two days, Hilbun allegedly stabbed his mother to death Thursday morning and later opened fire on former co-workers in the Dana Point post office, killing one man and injuring another.

Police say the 39-year-old Dana Point resident then shot and wounded at least four more people in three separate, additional attacks before he was quietly apprehended about 12:30 a.m. Saturday in a Huntington Beach bar.

Two patrons who saw Hilbun calmly watching television in the crowded bar called police. Just half an hour before his capture, Hilbun had allegedly robbed and wounded two people at an automated teller machine in Fountain Valley--just 150 feet from the local police station.

Police have painted a contradictory portrait of Hilbun, who was hospitalized twice in recent months for manic-depression and was being treated with lithium.

Authorities have credited the suspect for his “cunning” in switching license plates and taking other maneuvers to elude a far-reaching manhunt for some 38 hours. But they also expressed amazement over Hilbun’s audacity in remaining in the area and courting capture in a crowded bar.

“It’s almost like he wanted to be caught,” one police officer suggested.

Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maury L. Evans said Sunday that he could not comment on any aspect of the case. “We just don’t know where it’s at. When he gets to court, we’ll go forward,” Evans said.

Butler said that attorneys in his office will look closely at Hilbun’s psychiatric profile in preparing a defense--especially because the defendant could face the death penalty if convicted. One deputy public defender met with the suspect Saturday in jail.

“I would guess that because of his psychiatric background, there’s a lot of investigation that has to be done. In view of that fact, the working of this office will be very thorough and tedious,” Butler said.

In general, Butler said, defense attorneys look at three main areas in deciding whether to pursue an insanity defense: the nature of the crimes, the suspect’s demeanor in post-arrest meetings with the defense lawyer, and any history of “psychiatric disturbance.”

“It’s very important to determine if there’s any past history of psychiatric treatment, and obviously that would support a plea of insanity. That would be evidence of a state of mind,” Butler said.

Juries in Orange County have been generally reluctant to find a defendant not guilty by reason of insanity, attorneys say. One high-profile case--that of Richard DeHoyos, claiming insanity in the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl--is now under deliberation by a jury in Superior Court in Santa Ana.

Defendants judged insane are generally sent to state psychiatric institutions, instead of the state prison system. But there have been some notable exceptions in Orange County, including the case of Sheryl Lynn Massip, the Anaheim woman who ran over her six-week-old son with the family car and killed him.

In a stunning reversal of a jury verdict, a Superior Court judge in 1988 declared Massip insane at the time and set her free immediately.

Hilbun is being held without bail in the Orange County Jail. A judge could set bail when he makes his first appearance in court today, but Butler said, “I can’t see any judge giving him bail in this particular case” because of the number of alleged victims and Hilbun’s history of psychiatric treatment.

“Bail would seem academic at this point,” he said.

Sheriff’s Department officials investigated Thursday’s post office assault and the slaying of the suspect’s 63-year-old mother, Frances Hilbun, who was found stabbed to death in her home Thursday along with her cocker spaniel. The county’s investigators were later joined in the probe by police in Newport Beach and Fountain Valley as the number of attacks grew. Postal officials also aided in the investigation.

After three hectic days spent fielding tips and investigating the violent crime spree, police got a respite Sunday. Most investigators involved in the case took the day off.

“I suspect they’re probably sleeping--they’ve been up three or four days,” said Lt. Ron Wilkerson, watch commander for the Sheriff’s Department.