2-Murder Plea Bargain to Get Hilbun a Life Term

Mark Richard Hilbun, convicted of murdering two people during a two-day rampage at a Dana Point post office and other spots across the county, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole under a plea agreement approved Friday.

The 42-year-old former postal worker agreed to withdraw his attempt to be found insane and be sent to a state mental hospital. In exchange, prosecutors said they would not seek his execution for the slayings of his mother and best friend.

A jury convicted Hilbun of double murder, seven counts of attempted murder and other felonies in the 1993 rampage. But after deliberating for 17 days, the panel deadlocked last month about whether the San Juan Capistrano man was actually insane during his bloody crime spree, which defense lawyers contend was driven by delusions of a coming apocalypse and a long history of manic depression and schizophrenia.

Instead of seeking to retry Hilbun on the sanity issue, defense attorneys proposed the agreement guaranteeing that he would not face the death penalty.

“He did not want to put his family or the victims through another trial,” Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg said. “He knew that, hospitalized or not, he was going to be locked up for the rest of his life, and he knew that there was some risk of getting the death penalty.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Evans said the agreement served the “overwhelming interests of justice” and was supported by victims in the case.

“Our goal here has been that Mr. Hilbun is unable to ever walk the streets again,” Evans said.

Had jurors found him insane, Hilbun would have been sent to a psychiatric hospital until he regained his sanity. The prosecutor said Hilbun technically could have been eligible for release after being hospitalized a minimum of six months, although medical experts testified that they doubted Hilbun would ever regain his sanity.

Hilbun faced execution had jurors found him sane. Under the plea agreement, he will now serve life in prison without the possibility of parole after he is sentenced Dec. 17 by Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey.

Sharon Springer, whose daughter was stalked by Hilbun and targeted for kidnapping at the post office, said the plea agreement came as a “great relief.”

“As long as he’s put away forever and ever and he’s going to pay for what he’s done and all these people he’s hurt, I’m glad,” she said. “I feel bad for his family. But justice was finally served and it’s finally over and everyone can get on with their lives.”

The agreement caps a bizarre crime spree that terrorized local communities for two days and sparked a massive manhunt.

The rampage began early on May 6, 1993, when Hilbun stabbed his 63-year-old mother, Frances, to death in her Corona del Mar home and killed her cocker spaniel. Wearing a T-shirt with “Psycho” written across it, he then headed to the Dana Point post office where he had worked and opened fire on three co-workers, including the supervisor who had been trying to fire him for stalking postal worker Kim Springer.

One co-worker was injured and Charles Barbagallo, 45, of San Clemente, was killed. Springer, who had spurned his advances for a year, hid and was not injured.

The shooting spree continued as Hilbun fled in his pickup. He shot and injured a Newport Beach businesswoman after stealing her magnetic business placards to disguise his pickup, and later tried to rob three people at two Fountain Valley bank machines, shooting and injuring two of them.

He was captured as he sat sipping a beer at a sports bar in Huntington Beach.

Hilbun told police and psychiatrists he believed the world was coming to an end and that God had told him to take Springer by kayak to Baja California, where they would re-create the human race. He said he wanted to spare his mother from the apocalypse.

Judge Dickey said he had found “strong evidence of insanity” in Hilbun’s case. But after a series of questions to Hilbun and his lawyers, the judge found the defendant mentally competent to understand what was going on in his case and the significance of withdrawing his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

“We’re talking about you spending the rest of your life in prison without possibility of parole. You understand that?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” Hilbun answered.

Afterward, Gragg said her client was relieved the trial was over.

“It was very difficult for him, as you can imagine, to sit there for four months and listen to the things he did, and the pain that he caused, and to hear about his illness,” she said.