David Attias was legally insane on February 23, 2001, when he killed Nicholas Bourdakis, Christopher Divis, Elie Israel and Ruth Levy, and seriously injured Levy’s brother Albert, a jury found on Thursday.

Only a week after the same 12 jurors convicted the 20-year-old UCSB student on four second degree murder charges, they found that Attias was unable to tell the difference between right and wrong that night in Isla Vista.

Attias will now be evaluated by the Tri-County mental health director, who will make a recommendation to the court on July 12. Attias will then be placed in a state mental institution until a court finds him no longer a threat to society, which is different than finding him legally sane.

Attias will be allowed to petition for release as early as 180 days from his committal, but it is unlikely he would be released that soon because of the nature of his actions.

After thanking the jury for their hard work, Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Thomas Adams read the verdict, which the jury spent two days deliberating on, to a packed courtroom. Attias’ parents and grandmother broke into tears, as did Patricia, Bourdakis’ mother. One of the jurors was also crying.

Attias who was notably more alert than he had been during the previous eight weeks in the courtroom, looked pleased.

“David said he was so pleased,” said Nancy Haydt, one of Attias’ attorneys. “And he was looking forward to seeing his family on the weekend when he has visiting hours.”

Outside the courtroom, Bourdakis’ father Anthony said he was angry about the verdict, but expressed his gratitude to assistant district attorney Patrick McKinley and the entire prosecution team for their hard work and dedication to the case.

“First let me say how incredibly disappointed we are with the outcome of the trial,” he said. “By rendering the insanity verdict, the state of California has once again demonstrated to the rest of the country that you can twist the facts to your advantage and get away with murder. The tragedy of what happened can’t be undone and, in our opinion, David Attias will not serve the appropriate time for killing four young people and horribly injuring a fifth.”

McKinley later said outside the courthouse that the Bourdakis family was devastated by the jury’s decision.

“As you can imagine, this is very fresh in their minds. It’s been a difficult grind for them. No matter what the verdict is, now … this serves as a catalyst to either go on with their life or sink again,” he said.

Katie Ziegman, a cousin of the Levys, said she would have rather seen Attias go to jail, but “either way, if he’s off the street, I’m fine with it.”

Daniel Attias, who had not commented on the case since his son was arrested over a year ago, said he was grateful to the jury.

“We want to first express gratitude to the jury and court. We are grateful for the decision. We think it was just,” he said. “We’re mindful that this was a horrible, horrible tragedy. The losses that were incurred on February 23 were permanent and we were shaken and saddened. We’re grateful that the tragedy wasn’t compounded today.”

Attias’ defense team, Jack Earley and Haydt, said they, as well as the entire Attias family, were pleased.

“We’re grateful to the jury,” Earley said. “David will probably spend the rest of his life in a mental institution, and that’s an appropriate place for this to end. … We hope cases like this make people realize mental illness does affect everybody and can have tragic consequences.”

Much of the defense testimony had focused on Attias’ long history of mental illness. Earley said the jury’s decision “tells me that they realized it was not a drug thing, it was not a hate thing, it was a mental health issue. … The problem with this case, as with anything else, is that it’s random. It was a car accident.”

Earley also said that his client “wouldn’t have lasted” in a penitentiary, but that the likelihood of his release from the mental institution, even in years, is small.

“The state mental hospital is not a pretty picture,” he said. “Patton State Hospital [in San Bernadino] is an old, overcrowded unit - there are no frills - … but they are dealing with treatment there.”

McKinley, however, said that what will happen in six months or a year is “anybody’s guess.”

“I think nobody knows,” he said. “He’ll stay there for six months, he may stay there forever. Historically speaking, he will not spend the rest of his life there.”

McKinley said while he recognized Attias’ mental problems since the beginning of the case, he was never convinced that Attias was legally insane when he sped down Sabado Tarde Road, and he fears that the verdict could allow the defendant to make a similar decision again.

The prosecutor, who has worked in the district attorney’s office for over 30 years, said that this case was different than other murder trials he has worked on because of Attias’ mental history, and that the chance of him being allowed into society again was unsettling.

“His history indicates that him going off his meds has been going on since 1995, and unless something changes, that will happen again,” he said. “After the jury went out in the sanity phase, I was thinking a lot about what to do and say if they found him sane, because he is very sick and everyone knows it. [But] this isn’t like the other 20 murder trials I’ve sat in on; … this defendant doesn’t belong on that chain … but I think he’s very dangerous if he’s out because of his non-compliance with his medication. If he drives again, it will be scary.”

The court will meet again on July 12 at 1:30 p.m. in department two of the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse to evaluate Attias and sentence him to a mental hospital.

 

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David Attias, the former UCSB student who was convicted June 11 of four counts of second-degree murder and found legally insane a week later, is now in Patton State Hospital, where he will spend a maximum of 60 years.

The 20-year-old was on trial for killing Nicholas Bourdakis, Christopher Divis, Elie Israel and Ruth Levy on Feb. 23, 2001, when he sped down Sabado Tarde Road at speeds estimated as high as 60 miles per hour. Attias was also charged with driving under the influence of marijuana resulting in the great bodily injury of Albert Levy, Ruth’s brother, a charge for which he was acquitted.

The murder trial began in April, over one year after the incident occurred, and lasted eight weeks. Prosecuting attorney Patrick McKinley called over 100 witnesses over six weeks, including numerous Isla Vista residents and UCSB students.

Only one week after Attias was found guilty of the murders, the same jury found that he was legally insane at the time of the murders.

After the insanity verdict, which Judge Thomas Adams read on June 19, Attias underwent evaluation by psychiatrists and psychologists at the Ventura County Health and Behavior Unit. The doctors said that because Attias’ crimes were particularly severe and violent, he should be placed in a state hospital specializing in the care and treatment of mental disorders.

Patton is a major forensic mental health facility in San Bernardino operated by the California Department of Mental Health. It currently houses between 1,100 and 1,200 people committed by the judicial system for treatment.

On July 12, Adams agreed with the recommendation and placed Attias in Patton, pending the restoration of his sanity. If Attias does not fully recover, he will be released in 60 years, the time he would have served in prison had the jury found him legally sane at the time of the crime.

Under California law, Attias is allowed to request a court hearing after only 180 days of treatment at Patton; however, Jack Earley, one of Attias’ attorneys, said it is highly unlikely there will be any reason to return to the courtroom that soon. In order to be permanently released, Attias will have to go to trial again, where a jury would have to find him no longer a threat to society.

“What will happen is in 180 days they’ll say he’s not ready to be released and there will be no action taken,” Earley said. “He has the right to file [for a court appearance], but there’s no reason to file until he makes significant improvement. We can expect it will be years before we see anything.”

Earley said that Attias has not yet been permanently housed.

“I haven’t visited, but from [what] I understand, he’s still in the reception center; he doesn’t have permanent housing yet … over the next month or so more stuff will happen. He’ll have more permanent housing and the doctors will be working with him [more intensely],” he said. “Obviously, he has real problems and he obviously has to start working through them … I know he’s grateful for the opportunity to make himself better.”

Abby Pollack, Israel’s mother - who was in court almost every day - expressed disappointment at the verdict.

“I’m just going to assume there will be enough of us present each time David Attias comes up for appeal that Judge Adams will pay close attention to everything and everybody before he says, ‘You’re cured,’” she said.

Judge Adams, who has dealt with the case since it began in 2001, took a few moments after the placement hearing to address the courtroom and those who the case affected. He also wished the entire courtroom, and Attias in particular, luck in the future.

“I have been involved with this case since the moment it occurred. By coincidence, I happened to be the on-call judge contacted [on the night of the incident],” he said. “The parents and loved ones, know you have been in my thoughts and prayers ever since that terrible, fateful early morning.”

Adams also said he felt the scope of the trial extended far beyond Sabado Tarde Road, where the incident occurred.

“It was a tragedy for all concerned and it has touched the hearts of people all across the nation,” he said.

After the insanity verdict, several of the families involved also made public statements regarding the verdicts.

Pollack said she was “puzzled” by the jury’s decision.

“I’ll probably never know quite what happened in the [insanity phase] of the trial. People have given me different ways to interpret how he’s guilty of murder and insane,” she said. “I don’t fault the jury. I think they worked really hard. … But given the way California law works and other sanity cases that have been held recently in California, I was surprised.”

Pollack also praised the district attorney’s office’s work on the case.

“McKinley did a hell of a job,” she said. “That whole office, they worked so hard. Months and months and months of work on [McKinley’s] part, [CHP investigating officer] Dave Robertson, his staff and the county of Santa Barbara … all that painstaking work sort of tossed, gone.”

In June, Bourdakis’ father, Anthony, said he was angry Attias was found insane, but expressed his gratitude to McKinley and the entire prosecution team for their hard work and dedication to the case.

“First let me say how incredibly disappointed we are with the outcome of the trial,” he said. “By rendering the insanity verdict, the state of California has once again demonstrated to the rest of the country that you can twist the facts to your advantage and get away with murder. The tragedy of what happened can’t be undone and, in our opinion, David Attias will not serve the appropriate time for killing four young people and horribly injuring a fifth.”

McKinley later said outside the courthouse that the Bourdakis family was devastated by the jury’s decision.

“As you can imagine, this is very fresh in their minds. It’s been a difficult grind for them. No matter what the verdict is, now … this serves as a catalyst to either go on with their life or sink again,” he said.

Daniel Attias, who had not commented on the case since his son was arrested, said in June that he was grateful to the jury.

“We want to first express gratitude to the jury and court. We are grateful for the decision. We think it was just,” he said. “We’re mindful that this was a horrible, horrible tragedy. The losses that were incurred on February 23 were permanent and we were shaken and saddened. We’re grateful that the tragedy wasn’t compounded [by the jury’s decision].”

Attias’ defense team, Jack Earley and Nancy Haydt, said they, as well as the entire Attias family, were pleased.

“We’re grateful to the jury,” Earley said. “David will probably spend the rest of his life in a mental institution, and that’s an appropriate place for this to end. … We hope cases like this make people realize mental illness does affect everybody and can have tragic consequences.”

The four families of the victims and Albert Levy also filed a wrongful death and personal injury civil case in February against Attias and his parents, Daniel and Diane, which alleges that the parents acted negligently when they entrusted Attias with a car.

Ronald Rouda, the Levy family attorney who is heading up the lawsuits, said the case is not set to go to trial until May 2003.