Defendant Admits Acid Killing, Asks Hearing on Sanity

SANTA ANA —  A 36-year-old Mission Viejo man said to have been obsessed with a Laguna Hills woman who had broken off their relationship pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in her death, so that his trial can move immediately into a sanity hearing.

Hossein Ghaffari also pleaded guilty to special circumstances of murder while lying in wait and murder by torture, which means that if the jury finds him sane he can be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“There wasn’t any doubt he was guilty, so we wanted the jury to focus on what we think is the real issue,” said Ghaffari’s attorney, Jack Earley.

Earley said his client does not have a history of mental illness, but suffers from “erotomania,” which he said was delusional thinking about his relationship with the 34-year-old victim, Narges Bolouri.

She had broken off their 10-year relationship and was dating someone else when Ghaffari rammed her car on Feb. 2, 1990, then poured acid on her and set her ablaze. Ghaffari admitted to police that he had killed her.

“If the jurors were to hear about the crime before we were in the sanity phase, it would have been out of context,” Earley said.

Earley is scheduled to have doctors testify Monday about Ghaffari’s mental state at the time of the killing.