Hilbun Sanity Jury Deadlocks After 17 Days

SANTA ANA —  A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the sanity case of Mark Richard Hilbun after jurors tried unsuccessfully for 17 days to determine if Hilbun was insane when he went on a deadly rampage in 1993, opening fire at a Dana Point post office and then terrorizing the community for two days.

Jurors, clearly exhausted as they grimly announced the deadlock, said they agreed that the 42-year-old former postal worker had mental problems. But they split down the middle on most charges that the San Juan Capistrano man knew what he was doing.

“There wasn’t a person on the jury who didn’t think he [was] sick,” said Joanne Hathorne, who voted for sanity in the case. “It’s just a matter that some felt he was [legally] insane, and some felt he wasn’t.”

Hilbun faced a possible death sentence had jurors found he was sane during the crime spree, which defense lawyers contend was driven by delusions of a coming apocalypse and a history of manic depression and schizophrenia. If jurors had found him insane, he would have been sent to a state psychiatric hospital until he regained his sanity.

The rampage began early on May 6, 1993, when Hilbun stabbed his 63-year-old mother, Frances, to death in her Corona del Mar home and killed her cocker spaniel. Wearing a T-shirt with “Psycho” written across it, he then headed to the Dana Point post office where he had worked, and where co-workers had started arming themselves in fear of him. The postmaster had been trying to fire Hilbun for stalking postal worker Kim Springer and for other bizarre behavior, including wearing underwear over his uniform one day and dancing wildly to blaring music at his work station.

Hilbun called out for Springer, who had spurned his advances for a year, as he opened fire on three co-workers, including the postmaster. He fatally shot his good friend, Charles T. Barbagallo, 42, of San Clemente, between the eyes after Barbagallo refused to tell him where Springer was, according to testimony. Springer, who was hiding, was not injured.

The shooting spree continued as Hilbun fled in his pickup, stocked with camping gear and with a kayak strapped on top. In Dana Point, as Hilbun searched for a place to ditch the kayak, he shot and injured John Kersey during a struggle in Kersey’s garage.

He then shot Newport Beach businesswoman Patricia Salot six times, wounding her as she tried to retrieve magnetic business placards belonging to her, which he had stolen and stuck on his pickup in an effort to disguise it.

Hilbun later tried to rob three people at two automated teller machines in Fountain Valley. Two were shot and injured.

The rampage sparked a massive manhunt, and Hilbun ultimately was captured as he sat sipping a beer at a neighborhood sports bar in Huntington Beach. When police approached him, Hilbun said he was Robert Plant, using the name of the famous lead singer of the defunct rock group Led Zeppelin.

In August, the Hilbun jury had found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and other felony charges.

Defense attorneys, who had the burden of proving Hilbun was insane, will decide if they want a retrial on the sanity issue. If they do not, Hilbun will have to withdraw his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and face a penalty trial. Or both sides could negotiate an agreement to avoid a retrial. A judge set a Nov. 15 hearing date to determine what will be done next.

Since Hilbun’s arrest, jail doctors have prescribed an anti-psychotic medication for Hilbun, which his lawyers said keeps his condition under control.

Hilbun had told doctors and police he believed the world was coming to an end and that God had told him to take Springer by kayak to Baja, California, so they could re-create the human race.

Hilbun, his gray beard growing longer throughout the sanity phase of the trial, sat for months without moving or showing expression. He made only brief eye contact with his father and stepmother when he entered the courtroom each day.

Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg said the trial “has been very difficult for him. He’s sick anyway, and the kind of strain this has been on him has been very hard.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Evans, however, accused Hilbun of exaggerating his mental problems, saying the only evidence of his delusions was what he chose to tell the doctors.

Evans argued that Hilbun tried to kidnap Springer out of his obsession, and wanted to “pay back” postal officials for trying to fire him. Hilbun killed his mother because she was an obstacle to his plan, the prosecutor contended.

Hilbun claimed he repeatedly stabbed his mother to spare her from the apocalypse on Mother’s Day, which happened to be his birthday as well that year.

Sharon Springer, Kim’s mother, said her “heart sank” at news of the mistrial.

“How much longer is everyone going to have to go through this?” she asked. “We need closure on this at some point. I just wish it was over.”

Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey told jurors he had never seen a panel in his courtroom work as hard or long to reach a decision.

“It’s clear to me that all of you have been performing, to use an old expression, above and beyond the call of duty,” he said.

Jurors said they did not let Hilbun’s possible punishment affect their deliberations. They were instead polarized by the testimony of five medical experts for the defense, who agreed that Hilbun was psychotic at the time of the crimes.

As the days passed, jurors said, their split widened.

Azalea Churchill said the jury tried desperately “to weigh and reweigh the evidence.”

“We wanted to make an effort to be sure that we were being fair to the county and Mr. Hilbun,” Churchill said.

Dennis Habgood said he thought the evidence showed that Hilbun was “perfectly sane when he did the crimes,” and discounted the expert testimony.

“I didn’t believe that the doctors spent enough time with him to do a complete evaluation,” he said.

However, it was the psychiatrists’ testimony that swayed juror Jeff Takacs, who voted for insanity on each of the counts.

“There was a noticeable lack of conflicting psychiatric testimony from the prosecution,” Takacs said. “Their lack of contradictory testimony was a powerful statement. What else can I assume when I hear the defense’s psychiatrists testify he was psychotic, while all I hear from the prosecution is the prosecutor saying he was sane?”

The jury deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of finding Hilbun insane in the killing of his mother, and 8 to 4 in favor of insanity in the post office murder. They split 6 to 6 on most of the remaining 12 felony counts.

Each of the jurors said that the deliberations, while stressful at times, remained cordial, and all of them stayed friends after the ordeal.

“We spent the whole summer together, and all of us walked away in agreement that we all like each other,” Churchill said. “We had our moments, but we’re definitely going to miss each other.”

The deadlock presents lawyers with an unusual but not unprecedented situation.

In 1989, an Orange County jury deliberated a day and a half before announcing a deadlock over the sanity of a man convicted of fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her mother.

A second sanity trial was set, but Ronald James Blaney Jr., who contended he was born with brain defects, eventually withdrew his insanity plea in 1992 when a judge agreed that Blaney, who is deaf, could serve his life term at a prison where other deaf and hearing-impaired inmates were housed.

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Greg Hernandez.