Jury Finds Killer of 2 Children at School Was Sane; Could Face Death

Setting the stage for a possible death sentence, an Orange County jury on Monday concluded that Steven Allen Abrams was sane when he drove his car through a Costa Mesa playground in 1999, killing two toddlers and injuring five others.

The question of Abrams’ sanity was the most contentious aspect of the trial, because his attorneys conceded early on that their client intentionally drove his car through the crowded playground.

Jurors heard from 47 witnesses, many of them psychiatrists, as defense lawyers argued that schizophrenia kept Abrams from understanding that it was wrong to kill.

Abrams told several doctors that he plotted the attack for more than a year, hoping the government would stop invading his brain with radio waves if he killed young children.

Prosecutors, however, blamed any mental defect on his drug use.

Despite the 19 days of expert testimony, it took the jury less than three hours to reject the insanity defense--about the same time it took them to convict Abrams of murder in August for the deaths of Sierra Soto and Brandon Wiener.

Cindy Soto, clutching a photograph of her slain daughter, gasped and then cried after a court clerk announced the jury’s decision. Wiener’s parents held hands and fought back tears. Relatives and supporters of both families declined to comment after the verdict.

Had the jury found Abrams, 39, not guilty by reason of insanity, he would have been sentenced to a state mental hospital and held until a judge concluded that he was sane.

Instead, the jurors will return to court Thursday to begin hearing testimony to help them decide whether Abrams should receive the death penalty or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In closing arguments last week, Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg said that Abrams had been hospitalized several times for psychological problems in the years before the attack and that the sanity defense was not a ploy crafted after his arrest.

Additionally, Gragg said, Abrams for several years had confided to friends and relatives that a government entity he called the “brain wave police” were beaming him instructions to kill. By killing children, Abrams said, he would silence his tormentors.

To support the insanity theory, attorneys called witnesses who had observed Abrams commit a series of bizarre acts over the years. One saw him seated one day in a lawn chair, holding a fishing pole with the line cast into the street.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Debora Lloyd, however, called experts who said Abrams’ delusions were more likely the result of methamphetamine abuse than psychosis.

Attorneys said they expect the penalty portion of the trial to conclude next week.