Trial underway for man charged with killing his mom, brother in their Irvine home

A 45-year-old man struggling with a “long battle with mental illness” gunned down his mother and brother in their family home in Irvine “to save them,” his defense attorney Monday told an Orange County Superior Court judge who is weighing the defendant’s guilt and insanity plea.

Nolan Pascal Pillay is charged with two counts of murder with special circumstance allegations of multiple murders with two sentencing enhancements for gun use. He is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole or an indefinite commitment to a state mental hospital.

Pillay on Monday waived his right to a jury trial, opting instead for Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer to first determine his guilt or innocence and then in a second phase whether he was legally sane on Jan. 31, 2017, when he killed 58-year-old Gloria Pillay and 35-year-old Arlyn Pillay.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Moore said there is “more than enough evidence of premeditation and deliberation” in the fatal shootings.

“The evidence is overwhelming in that regard,” he added.

But Pillay’s attorney, Jacqueline Goodman, disputed that, arguing that at most it was second-degree murder as she questioned whether there was a detailed plan the defendant considered before the shootings that day in the 14900 block of Crystal Circle.

Pillay “loved his family deeply,’’ Goodman said. He lived in the home with his parents and brother, she said.

“They came from South Africa when Nolan was 11 years old,” Goodman said. “They were a loving, tight-knit family.”

Pillay was first diagnosed with schizophrenia “marked by delusions,” in 2007, Goodman said. While in high school “tthere were some indications” of mental illness, she added.

While Pillay’s father was in the living room watching TV, the defendant fatally shot his mother and brother, Goodman said.

“Nolan’s plan was to kill his family and himself that day,” Goodman said.

Pillay obtained a gun and had gone to a shooting range, she acknowledged.

But in a video blog as he discusses his plan to kill his family “he talks about how he has to do it to save them” from “ruin,” Goodman said.

Pillay was dogged by paranoia that his family was going to be “homeless” and believed he needed to kill them, but “he wasn’t sure he could do it because he loved them so much.

And because Pillay feared his family was on the path to financial ruin he began “rationing” his anti-psychotic drugs, cutting his doses in half, Goodman said.

Pillay “had a brief argument with his mother that morning,” but it was his paranoia fueling his actions, Goodman said.

“He believed it was his duty to save his family,” she said. “His thoughts get more and more chaotic” so he did not have the faculties to commit a premeditated murder, Goodman said.

All of the doctors who have examined Pillay have concluded he was legally insane at the time of the killings, Goodman said.

Paer said he would review all the evidence in the case and make a ruling on whether the defendant is guilty of the killings, and then he would consider whether Pillay was legally sane or not.