Foundation of Hilbun Defense Rests on Sanity

SANTA ANA — Mark Richard Hilbun’s defense attorney admits that the former Dana Point postal worker faces an uphill battle to prove he was insane during a bloody 1993 rampage that left two dead.

Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg has said that she will concede Hilbun committed the double murder, but she will argue for reduced charges to protect him from the death penalty.

Jury selection in Hilbun’s case begins today in Orange County Superior Court, where he will stand trial on 13 felony counts.

“It’s not going to be easy,” said Gragg, who acknowledged that an insanity defense is increasingly unpopular with jurors who consider it a legal loophole that allows criminals to go free.

“There’s a national mood of skepticism about insanity defenses, which is not an unhealthy thing, as long as jurors understand psychiatric defenses are warranted in some cases,” Gragg said. “This is one of those cases.”

In fact, the strategy is rarely used, and succeeding with it is even rarer, said Peter Arenella, a UCLA law professor and expert on insanity defenses.

“For every Lorena Bobbitt who gets off on an insanity defense, you have a hundred Jeffrey Dahmers who don’t,” Arenella said.

Hilbun, 42, has a long history of mental illness. But prosecutors, who declined to discuss the case before trial, have asserted in court records that Hilbun knew exactly what he was doing the day of the slayings. They say he carefully plotted his revenge against postal officials who fired him just days before for erratic behavior and harassing a female co-worker.

The prosecution will also try to prove Hilbun was aware of his actions with evidence that he tried to evade capture. Hilbun, prosecutors said, changed his appearance, altered his car’s license plate and hid in a Garden Grove hotel room.

The last Orange County defendant to claim insanity in a capital case--unsuccessfully, as it turned out--was Richard DeHoyos, who was sentenced to death in August 1993 for killing a 9-year-old and dumping her body in a trash can, Gragg said.

The rampage began May 6, 1993, when Hilbun allegedly stabbed his mother, Frances, to death in her Corona del Mar home and butchered her pet cocker spaniel.

Hilbun, wearing a T-shirt with “Psycho” written across it, then drove to the Dana Point post office where he had worked, authorities said.

He calmly walked into an employee area and, police and witnesses say, opened fire during what police say was a failed attempt to kidnap Kim Springer, a co-worker who had spurned Hilbun’s advances.

Hilbun allegedly killed fellow letter carrier and close friend Charles T. Barbagallo, 42, of San Clemente, shooting him between the eyes after he refused to reveal where Springer was working in the huge building. Then, authorities say, he shot and injured Peter Gates, a co-worker who rushed to aid Barbagallo. All the while, witnesses said, Hilbun was calling out “Kim, Kim.” Springer later told the Orange County Grand Jury that she was terrified that morning after hearing shots ring out and Hilbun yelling her name. She said she scrambled to hide from the gunman.

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Hilbun fled the scene in his pickup truck with a kayak strapped on top, investigators said. His violent spree would allegedly continue for the next 38 hours.

Hilbun is accused of pistol-whipping John Kersey, who was working in his Dana Point garage, and shooting him in the arm when he fought back.

Authorities contend Hilbun then broke into another home, abandoning his kayak and leaving resident Scott Waltz forever grateful he and his family were not there at the time.

Hilbun also allegedly shot Newport Beach businesswoman Patricia Salot six times when, she said, she tried to stop him from stealing her magnetic business placards, which he allegedly used to disguise his vehicle.

Finally, Hilbun is charged with shooting and injuring Jim Brown and Elizabeth Shea after robbing them outside an automated teller machine in Fountain Valley.

Through it all, Orange County residents were on edge as live television and radio news reports warned of the latest sightings of the suspect.

Hilbun was ultimately captured as he calmly sipped vodka cocktails at a neighborhood sports bar in Huntington Beach. When police approached him at the bar, he calmly told them: “I’m the one you’re looking for.”

Gragg said she does not believe a desire to evade capture proves Hilbun was sane: “The real battle is going to be to educate the jury on what ‘delusional’ means. It doesn’t mean stupid.”

The defense will claim Hilbun was driven by voices in his head at the time of the killings. Chief among their evidence will be Hilbun’s history of hospitalization for manic depression, along with anecdotal evidence of his bizarre behavior, such as carrying around a bag of rabbits or going to work wearing his underwear outside his clothing or on his head.

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Shortly after the killings, he told authorities he had to kill his mother to protect her from a “catastrophe” on Mother’s Day and said he believes that he and Springer “were chosen as the husband and wife of the human race,” like Adam and Eve. He also claimed to be Jesus Christ.

Hilbun remains under medication in protective custody in the medical ward at the Orange County Men’s Jail. During numerous court appearances, Hilbun has appeared disheveled and shaking uncontrollably. He suffered a concussion and other injuries when he plunged off a second-story walkway in the jail, landing on his head in what his lawyer and jail officials believe was a suicide attempt.

Hilbun’s case has been delayed as psychiatrists determined he was mentally competent to stand trial. The case is expected to last four months and will be divided into three phases.

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During the first phase, Hilbun’s guilt or innocence will be determined. Although the defense will admit that Hilbun committed the acts, defense attorneys hope to argue for convictions on lesser charges that would shield him from the death penalty.

In the second phase, jurors will determine Hilbun’s sanity at the time of the crimes. If found to be insane, Hilbun would be sent to a state psychiatric hospital where he would remain until it is determined he has regained his sanity.

If Hilbun is found sane, jurors will move to the third and final phase, in which they must decide whether to recommend the death penalty for Hilbun.

For some watching the case closely, there is little sympathy.

“I hope the jury does the right thing,” said Humberto Ochoa of Huntington Beach, who stands to share in a $25,000 reward offered by the U.S. Postal Service for helping apprehend Hilbun.