California and the West : Drifter Testifies God Led Him to Kill Boy, 9 : Hearing: Suspect in Oceanside slaying says at sanity proceeding that he was told to begin killing people. Prosecutors contend he knew right from wrong.

Brandon Wilson, 21, a drifter from Wisconsin with a penchant for psychedelic drugs and classic literature, testified Tuesday that he killed 9-year-old Matthew Cecchi in a beachfront restroom because God told him to begin a killing rampage to hasten the end of the world.

Wilson, testifying at a sanity hearing, said he first began having murderous thoughts when he was 15 and reading the philosopher Nietzsche and listening to shock-rocker Marilyn Manson.

He said he considered killing his mother with a knife. Wilson’s parents had recently divorced, angering the youth.

“It [murder]) is what we’re bred into,” Wilson said. “It’s what we see on television and the movies.”

Instead, he ended up killing the Oroville youngster in a public restroom in Oceanside in the twilight hours of Nov. 14, 1998.

A defense psychiatrist has testified that Wilson was insane at the time of the killing. A court-appointed psychiatrist has testified that Wilson was delusional but not insane because he knew the difference between right and wrong.

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Rubin sought to portray Wilson as smart, manipulative and capable of faking mental illness to avoid the death penalty.

Rubin submitted evidence that Wilson got A’s in high school, scored in the 98th percentile in his college admission tests and was admitted to the University of Wisconsin before deciding instead to travel the country. During his travels, Wilson was writing a story titled “The Oracle” that included battle between mythological-style characters.

Under questioning from Rubin, Wilson said that while in jail awaiting trial he has read “Faust,” the works of Dostoevsky, Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Wuthering Heights,” “The Iliad” and Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil.”

“You were a fan of Nietzsche’s in high school, weren’t you?” said Rubin, citing the German writer’s “superman” theory about rare individuals whose intellect and discipline set them apart from others.

If the Superior Court jury finds Wilson sane, he could be sentenced to either death or life in prison without parole. If found insane, he would be sent to a state mental hospital.

The murder sent shock waves throughout Southern California, where the popular Oceanside beachfront is known as a safe gathering spot. In Sacramento, the incident led to legislative calls for tougher, swifter penalties for child killers.

Arrested in Hollywood two days after the murder, Wilson immediately confessed. The young victim, whose family had moved from Orange County to Northern California in search of a safer environment, was with his father at the Oceanside beach for a gathering with relatives.

In precise, matter-of-fact tones Wilson told of taking LSD while in the desert at Borrego Springs and then traveling to San Diego, Del Mar and finally Oceanside in search of a victim. He said he passed up older potential victims because “when you offer a sacrifice, it’s supposed to be a lamb, pure, without blemish.”

Taking LSD and psilocybin, he said, made him realize that “There was a part of me that was evil and God had put it there for a reason--to use me.”

Wilson testified that after he sliced the boy’s throat, “there was a surge of energy, power. I interpreted it as a gift from God: that I had done the right thing.”

Wilson said he took a bus to Los Angeles and then a cab to Hollywood so that his future murders would be among “the beautiful people.”

“That part of me that was opened up [by LSD] had a voracious appetite,” Wilson said. “I couldn’t go more than a few days without killing again.”

Wilson was subdued by witnesses and arrested after stabbing a 40-year-old woman during a purse-snatching incident.

In his initial confession, Wilson did not mention getting messages from God or provide any motive for killing Matthew--a point stressed by Rubin.