A judge has committed a mentally ill man who killed two men in Otay Mesa to a state mental facility where he may remain for the rest of his life.
Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Dwayne Moring has found that Ricardo Valles, 53, was legally insane when he fatally stabbed two homeless men, Albert Stringer, 61, and Curtis Murray 56, on May 17, 2017.
Valles will likely go to Patton State Hospital and it will be up to Valles to petition a court for release if he feels he has regained his sanity. A judge would have to review all the psychiatric records and make a determination that he was no longer insane and also not a danger.
There is no clear motive in why Valles attacked the two men, who may have sleeping at the time in front of a closed business known as Rita’s Italian Ice at 3410 Palm Avenue. A San Diego Police officer noticed the men did not respond to him at 2:45 a.m. and saw they had stab wounds to their chests.
Valles did not know the men but he was arrested six days later at the intersection of Palm Avenue and Beyer Way. Valles had a history of delusions, said Deputy District Attorney Victor Ou.
In a dual proceeding, Valles pleaded guilty to both murders and his attorney submitted the sanity phase of the trial to Moring. The judge read the reports from psychiatrists who evaluated him and determined he was insane at the time of the murders.
