Man Who Killed 2 in Upper Ojai Sent to State Hospital

A mentally unstable furniture salesman who killed two friends in Upper Ojai should spend the rest of his life, or until psychiatrists deem him sane, in a state hospital, a Ventura County judge ruled Wednesday.

Michael Hugo Garcia, a 43-year-old La Crescenta resident, will be confined at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County.

Garcia told authorities he believed he was killing a demon when he fatally shot Helen Giardina, 42, and her 83-year-old father, Albert “Jim” Alexander, earlier this year. A jury last month found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

That verdict set the stage for Wednesday’s placement hearing in which Judge James Cloninger had to determine whether the offense for which Garcia was prosecuted was first- or second-degree murder.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Calvert argued that Garcia had committed premeditated and deliberate first-degree murder.

Defense attorney James Farley said the killings constituted second-degree murder because the defendant could not have meaningfully reflected on his actions, and the judge agreed.

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Either way, first- or second-degree murder carries a maximum punishment of life in prison, or in Garcia’s case a maximum confinement of life in a state hospital unless he is deemed sane by doctors.

But Calvert and the victims’ family--earlier disappointed that the jury did not find Garcia guilty--had hoped for a first-degree murder finding to validate their feelings that a deliberate crime was committed.

“I feel disappointed again,” said Tom Giardina, the victim’s husband. “There have been a series of disappointments.”

At the close of Garcia’s trial, prosecutors had argued he was sane enough on the night of the shooting to know right from wrong.

Calvert told the jury that Garcia had courted Helen Giardina by giving her gifts and leaving a love note on her pillow.

But when she refused to return his affections, Calvert said, the pair fought loud enough to wake Alexander and prompt him to intervene.

Garcia shot Alexander six times and fired 12 bullets into Giardina before calling 911 to report the slayings, which occurred in front of Giardina’s 3 1/2-year-old son, Jimmy.

Farley told the jury that his client’s mental illness had been worsening in the months preceding the slaying and that he suffered a severe psychotic episode on the night of the incident.

After Wednesday’s placement hearing, Farley said that his client could be kept at the state hospital for the rest of his life.

“Mr. Garcia will not be released from the hospital until the doctors decide he is safe and sane,” Farley said, adding that such a release in the near future is unlikely.

“I don’t see that happening,” Farley said. “The mental disease doesn’t just go away.”

Dr. Rex Beaber, a clinical psychologist and an attorney who served as a consultant to the district attorney’s office on the Garcia case, noted that institutionalization is not supposed to be punishment.

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“Having said that, I think it goes without saying that confinement in a hospital for the criminally insane is indistinguishable from being in prison in most regards,” he said. “Life in a place like Patton State Hospital in many ways is more onerous than being in prison itself.”

If at some point the doctors at Patton believe Garcia is sane, the matter would be referred to Ventura County Superior Court, typically before the same judge, Beaber said.

Evidence such as psychiatric reports would be presented during a court trial, and the judge would have to decide whether Garcia posed a risk to society.

“The state hospitals do release these people,” he said. “They are careful, and obviously a homicide will make them especially careful.”

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Tom Giardina said he would fight any attempt by his wife’s killer to be released from a mental institution.

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“If he ever petitions for release,” he said, “I will be there in full force with my family and friends.”

In the meantime, Giardina said his son is seeing a therapist to help cope with the loss of his grandfather and mother, and the tragedy of seeing them killed.

“He asks a lot of questions,” said Giardina, a Los Angeles resident. “He asks, ‘Where is mommy?’ Many times he has asked me, ‘Daddy, please don’t be dead tomorrow.’ ”