new york homeless killings insanity defense.

A man on trial for bludgeoning four men to death with a metal bar as they slept on the New York City streets had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he left jail months earlier and was hearing voices telling him he needed to kill 40 people or he would die too. That is what Randy Santos’ lawyer told jurors on Tuesday during opening statements in his first-degree murder trial. Santos is asserting an insanity defense. Through his lawyers, he has acknowledged committing the 2019 Chinatown rampage. But, they argue, he is not criminally responsible because mental illness has polluted his mind with irrational thoughts and left him prone to violence. If they succeed, Santos could be sent to a psychiatric treatment facility instead of prison.