Transient Convicted in County-USC Rampage : Crime: Damascio Torres is found guilty of wounding three doctors and taking two employees hostage. He admitted the February, 1993, attack during testimony.

After a five-day trial during which he recounted his armed attack on an emergency room at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, a Skid Row loner was convicted Monday of wounding three doctors in the rampage and taking two other employees hostage.

A Superior Court jury deliberated a little more than four hours before reaching the verdicts against Damascio Ybarra Torres, 41.

Torres admitted the attack during his testimony, saying he went to the hospital with two handguns, a rifle and a knife because he believed that physicians there had injected him with the virus that causes AIDS, then repeatedly referred him to a mental health unit when he returned seeking treatment for resulting physical illnesses.

The February, 1993, shooting raised concerns about security at often-crowded, government-run medical centers, where impatient or unbalanced patients sometimes become violent. After the rampage, security measures were tightened at County-USC, which is one of the busiest medical facilities in the nation.

On Monday, Torres sat silently next to his lawyer as a court clerk read the verdicts against him--guilty of three counts of attempted murder with intent to do great bodily harm, two counts of felony imprisonment and using guns in committing the crimes.

Torres faces three life sentences on the attempted murder charges alone at his June 1 sentencing.

The jury agreed with a defense expert who testified that Torres suffers from persecution delusions but concluded that he was rational enough to methodically plan and execute his crime, said a juror who talked to reporters outside the courtroom and who asked that her name not be made public.

Before his trial began, Torres had withdrawn his plea of innocent by reason of insanity against the advice of his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Joan Croker.

He also insisted on testifying on his own behalf, Croker said.

After the verdicts, Croker told reporters that she had hoped the jury would find Torres guilty of lesser charges, especially after they saw “how delusional he was” during his testimony.

“He believed he was used in an experiment related to AIDS in 1982,” Croker said. “He said he went to the hospital to make a statement.”

His testimony, however, coupled with a 34-point plan Torres wrote the night before the rampage indicating how he would carry out the attack, helped convince the jury that he was lucid enough to be held responsible for his actions, Deputy Dist. Atty. Anne Ingalls said.

Ingalls said she drew that conclusion from private discussions she had with jurors after they were dismissed.

Critically injured in the attack at the hospital were Dr. Richard May, Dr. Glen Rogers and Dr. Paul Kaszubowski. Rogers testified that he had treated Torres twice in the year before the rampage.

May and Kaszubowski have been unable to return to work as a result of their injuries.

The two hostages, a physician and a receptionist, were released unhurt after Torres surrendered to a SWAT team after holding officers at bay for several hours.

One of the hostages, Dr. Anne Tournay, testified that before she was taken prisoner she heard a man yelling: “I don’t want nurses. I want doctors. I want white coats.”

Later, when police searched Torres’ room at a Downtown transients’ hotel, they found the written plan for the attack.