VAN NUYS : Murder Suspect Sent Back to Patton State

Anthony West, whose courtroom behavior has run the gamut from dazed to bizarre, was found incompetent to stand trial Wednesday in the 1992 torture-slaying of a 90-year-old Pasadena millionaire.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Candace J. Beason ordered West, 33, returned to Patton State Hospital for further psychiatric treatment after a two-day hearing featuring testimony and reports from several mental health experts.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Walmark contended that West was faking incompetence to avoid prosecution for kidnaping his girlfriend’s father, locking him in the trunk of his car and letting him die to cover up an alleged $25,000 embezzlement.

The prosecution’s expert, William T. Vicary, testified that he believed West was faking mental illness, saying he based his finding on the fact that West does not act as other psychotics do.

“He’s not genuinely sick. He’s acting,” said Vicary, adding: “I give him credit. He’s done a very good job. He’s one of the people who has slipped through the cracks.”

But seven other experts have found West to be psychotic, Deputy Public Defender Michael Gottlieb said. He added that West’s condition does not easily fall into the usual psychiatric categories.

“If Tony is acting, he’s better than Brando, he’s better than Pacino because nobody could keep this up for two years,” Gottlieb said.

The defense attorney added that West had been lucid until his arraignment two years ago, when he collapsed, babbling, in a corner, then invited everyone in court to dinner. He asked bailiffs to pull up his car, treating them like valets, according to a transcript. On other occasions, he has wet his pants, or fallen limp.

Police and prosecutors believe that between Sept. 15 and 18, 1992, West kidnaped and killed Louis Molduf, 90, so that Molduf would not press charges that West had forged $25,000 worth of checks from Molduf’s account to bankroll gambling jaunts to Las Vegas.

When confronted by Molduf, West allegedly forced the elderly man into the trunk of his car and drove around for about 12 hours.

Molduf expired after trying desperately to get free, even scratching at the trunk with his fingernails, police said at the time.