Diminished Capacity

A man whose parents went to jail rather than testify against him in a rape case pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated sexual assault. Craig Yandow, 26, will serve at least 20 years in prison for the Feb. 14, 1996, rape of a woman who was found beaten, unconscious with a fractured skull and half-naked in 10-degree weather near downtown Burlington's central business district.

A judge scheduled a May 4 execution date Monday for Manuel Babbitt, a decorated Vietnam veteran who was sentenced to death for murdering an elderly Sacramento woman during a 1980 robbery. Babbitt's 50th birthday is May 3. His lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling upholding his conviction and death sentence. They also plan to ask Gov. Gray Davis for clemency. Babbitt was convicted of murdering Leah Schendel, 78, while robbing her apartment in December 1980.

When Dan White watched his young son play soccer, he hid behind a fence and peered through a knothole so no one would spot him. He lived much of the time in an undisclosed location in the Bay Area, and when he visited his family in the home he owned in the city's Excelsior section, he slouched when the car entered the driveway to avoid recognition by neighbors. When he went to see a boyhood friend, he suggested they meet in a car parked on a darkened street so no one would see his face.

A 23-year-old Encino man accused of murdering his mother, actress Susan Cabot, has laid the groundwork for a possible insanity defense. Medical records filed in court Monday state that the man, Timothy Scott Roman, was treated for 15 years with an experimental growth hormone that later was found to cause neurological problems in some patients.

Jose Domene, until a month ago the general manager of Chivas USA, was officially let go by the Major League Soccer team's new ownership Tuesday, a team official confirmed. "Jose is no longer a Chivas USA employee. Effective today," Rodrigo Ochoa, the team's communications director wrote in response to an email question. Domene, who was appointed interim general manager during the team's last front-office shakeup in December 2010, was among the last members of this season's administrative staff to be  fired by Mexican businessman Jorge Vergara who, along with wife Angelica Fuentes, took full ownership of the franchise three months ago after buying out partners Lorenzo and Antonio Cue. Domene, 32, among the youngest general managers in U.S. professional sports, was an aggressive GM, making midseason acquisitions that brought Juan Agudelo, Jose Erick Correa and Shalrie Joseph to Chivas.

The process for administering the death penalty in the United States is broken beyond repair, and it is time to choose a more effective and moral alternative. California voters will have the opportunity to do this on election day. Although our government has a fundamental responsibility to protect its citizens, there is little evidence that the death penalty acts as a strong deterrent to murder and other violent crimes. One recent study found that 88% of the nation's leading criminologists believe that swift and certain punishment is the best deterrent.

The search is continuing for a 77-year-old man last seen June 22 at Temple City Park, authorities said Thursday. Frank Macias Rubio disappeared during a music program he attended with other residents and caregivers from a convalescent home, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Det. Diane Harris. Rubio, who has diminished mental capacity, is described as 5 feet 3 and 147 pounds, with white hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a faded blue shirt and black pants. He has no teeth, police said.

A South-Central Los Angeles man accused of the shotgun murder of a U.S. postal worker as she was delivering mail to his house was found guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday by a Los Angeles federal jury. The case of Kerry Lynn Brown, 25, who had been shot by a mystery assailant three weeks before the April 26 killing of mail carrier Dale J. Hooker, revolved around unsuccessful efforts to mount a diminished capacity defense because of the earlier shooting.

A leading expert in psychoanalysis and criminology said Saturday that California voters made a big mistake in 1982 when they overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that restricted the use of psychiatric testimony in the courtroom. Dr. Bernard Diamond, a psychiatry professor at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco, told a group of his colleagues that a killer's state of mind is complex and that seemingly obvious explanations for criminal behavior are often off base.