Insanity

A former Westminster police detective may face life in prison after a San Bernardino County jury Tuesday rejected his defense that he was in an antidepressant-induced blackout, and legally insane, when he kidnapped and raped a waitress. Anthony Orban testified that he had no memory of the 2010 attack and blamed his psychotic break on a powerful dose of the popular antidepressant Zoloft, which he said had triggered hallucinations and suicidal and homicidal fantasies in the days before the abduction.

SHERMAN, Texas - Sgt. John Russell designed his new house here so there would be room for everyone: for him and his wife, Mandy, his wife's parents and his own. There was a doggie door for Louie and Queenie - "the little ones," he called them in his emails. It was where he wanted to spend the rest of his life when he got home from Iraq, he'd say as he shared photos of the latest construction. After a dispute with a co-worker, Russell fretted that he'd get demoted and would not be able to make the payments.

Re "U.S. expects rise in troop casualties," May 7 This reminds me of Marlon Brando as Col. Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now" chanting, "Insanity, insanity." The Bush administration's strategy seems to be that if what we have done up to now doesn't work, let's do more of it and get more people killed. And what is this doing buried back on Page A7? Have we become so blase about this disaster that it is less important than the "Spider-Man 3" box office, Rudy Giuliani's divorces and Hermes shopping bags, all on the front page?

When, in her famous essay "A Room of One's Own," Virginia Woolf conjured the tragically compelling possibility of Shakespeare's sister, a new sort of narrative was born - the reclamation of female characters who previously lurked at the edges of epic tales. Queens and consorts, mothers and parlor maids have all gotten their due in retellings of famous works, from the Bible to the tales of Sherlock Holmes. And now here's Mama Bates. The mother of cinematic serial killer Norman Bates is among the most famous off-stage characters in dramatic history.

Insider humor darts about "Insanity" at the NoHo Arts Center. James J. Mellon and Scott DeTurk's new musical concerns a Hollywood schlockmeister who suddenly vows to make world-changing fare, which lands him in a psych ward. If that is not Tinseltown topical, what is? Mellon's libretto follows Zarek Saxton (Kevin Bailey), whose descent into imbalance occurs after we first see him calling "Cut!" on the slasher pic he's helming.

The beauty of young Catherine Deneuve in "Repulsion" is both beguiling and deceptive. Gaze at her perfectly formed, serene face and you might begin to think that all is right in the world. Then Roman Polanski takes you inside that pretty head, and everything is upside-down. Deneuve's character, Carol, is a tangle of disturbed impulses ready to blossom into madness. She's an angel who just happens to be a sexual basket case with violent urges.

The other night I watched the evening news companioned by my two youngest boys--ages 8 and 9--who were excitedly and prematurely in place for the Academy Awards--an annual children's show in which Hollywood recklessly uncurtains the fusion of the mercenary with the meretricious from which cinematic alchemy distills its illusions. And so, in an accident of scheduling, we watched together something that was no illusion at all: the intermittent detonation of warfare in the Gulf of Sidra.

HOUSTON -- A JetBlue Airways pilot who roamed the cabin raving about terrorists before being subdued by passengers was found not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday, according to a court filing obtained by The Times. U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson issued the ruling during a bench trial in Amarillo, noting that Clayton Osbon suffered from a "severe mental disease or defect," according to the Associated Press. Osbon's attorney, Dean Roper, declined to comment to the Associated Press.  After a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, Osbon had been found competent to stand trial.

A clinical psychologist hired by the defense told a federal court jury Tuesday that admitted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui is a paranoid schizophrenic who began to lose his ability to reason a decade ago, when he first embraced Muslim extremism in England. The mental health expert from New York testified all day, describing his bizarre jailhouse interview with Moussaoui in which the 37-year-old Frenchman talked to himself and spat water at anyone who came near him.

A man charged in a deadly string of highway shootings in Ohio pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, a day after a judge in Columbus ruled that he was competent to stand trial. Lawyers for Charles A. McCoy Jr., 29, said he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and that psychiatrists found evidence McCoy did not understand right from wrong during the more than 20 shootings, one of which killed a woman.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - A visibly annoyed judge ordered a not guilty plea for James E. Holmes, who is charged with the deadly Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting, after his defense said they were not ready to enter a plea. Wearing shackles and prison togs, Holmes was impassive in the Arapahoe County Court as he was arraigned on 166 criminal counts in connection with the shooting on July 20. The former neuroscience doctoral student at the University of Colorado-Denver is accused of opening fire in a packed movie theater during a midnight showing of  “The Dark Knight Rises,”  killing 12 and wounding about 70. Prosecutors said they will announce on April 1 whether they will seek the death penalty.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- The judge in the Aurora movie massacre case has rejected a defense argument that Colorado laws on insanity pleas are unconstitutional, clearing the way for the long-awaited arraignment of James E. Holmes next week. Holmes, 25, was arrested without resistance minutes after he allegedly opened fire July 20 inside a packed theater during the showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve people were killed and 70 were wounded in a crime that horrified the nation and is now invoked by both sides in the ongoing gun control debate.  Holmes has been held in isolation without bond and has not yet entered a plea.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - The judge in the Aurora movie theater massacre case has rejected a defense argument that Colorado laws on insanity pleas are unconstitutional, paving the way for a long-awaited arraignment next week. James E. Holmes, 25, was arrested without resistance minutes after a gunman opened fire July 20 in a packed theater during the showing of "The Dark Knight Rises. " Twelve people were killed and about 70 others were wounded in a crime that horrified the nation and has now become fodder in the debate over gun control.

The suspect in the Colorado theater shooting may plead not guilty by reason of insanity, according to court documents filed by his attorneys. The motions filed this week on behalf of James E. Holmes call into question the constitutionality of several aspects of the state's insanity defense laws for defendants, such as Holmes, who could face the death penalty. The 25-year-old former neuroscience student is accused of storming an Aurora theater on July 20 and opening fire on the crowd which had gathered to watch the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve people were killed and dozens of others were injured.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Prosecutors closed their circle of evidence against James E. Holmes on Wednesday, depicting him as a methodical and ruthless killer who plotted for months to attack as many people as possible in a packed suburban movie theater. "He didn't care who he killed or how many he killed. He wanted to kill them all," Assistant Dist. Atty. Karen Pearson said at the end of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence to try Holmes on 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and weapons charges in the rampage that killed 12 people and injured at least 70 others in Aurora, Colo.

A woman accused of dropping her 7-month-old son from the fourth floor of a parking structure pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday in an Orange County courtroom, a prosecutor said. Sonia Hermosillo, who has been charged with child assault and murder in the 2011 death of her son, was evaluated by three doctors before a judge found her fit to stand trial last year. Her attorney, Jacqueline Goodman, has said that her client suffers from " postpartum psychosis . " Hermosillo drove to Children's Hospital of Orange County on Aug. 22, 2011, and parked her car on the fourth floor of a parking structure, according to prosecutors.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the death sentence of a mentally disturbed murderer who was being forcibly medicated by Louisiana prison officials so that he could be executed. The case of Michael Owen Perry has been the most closely watched death penalty case of the current term because it tested the willingness of the court's dominant conservatives to uphold executions.

Jurors will be asked next week to decide whether aspiring rapper Antron Singleton was insane, as his lawyer claims, when he cut open a woman, removed her lung and ate it. Singleton was found guilty Wednesday of killing his roommate, Tynisha Ysais, 21, by the same jury that will hear evidence starting Monday regarding his insanity plea. Dr.

The Supreme Court refused this week to review the murder conviction of an Idaho man who was prevented by state law from offering an insanity defense. The court's abdication of its responsibility encourages other states to dismantle a central principle of Anglo-American law: that a defendant should not be held criminally responsible when mental illness makes it impossible for him to tell right from wrong. Contrary to what viewers of television courtroom dramas may believe, a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity is seldom asserted and usually unsuccessful.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has let stand the murder conviction of a paranoid and delusional Idaho man who was denied the opportunity to mount an insanity defense. Three justices dissented, arguing that the court should incorporate the long-standing insanity defense into the Constitution. Shortly after John Hinckley Jr. was acquitted of the attempted assassination of President Reagan by reason of insanity in 1982, Idaho and three other states abolished the insanity defense from their criminal laws.