A mentally ill South Bay man who said he was following orders from the CIA when he stabbed his mother to death has been committed to a state mental hospital.
Kaijamar "Kai" Carpenter, 29, killed his mother, Diane Carpenter, in January, 2007, at the family home on Oleander Avenue, in Chula Vista. He told police that the woman he killed in January 2007 was not really his mother, but an impostor whose activities were threatening the world's financial system. Carpenter's father David said his son has suffered from severe mental illness for more than 10 years, but said his son only got mental health care when he committed an act of violence or threatened to hurt some one.
"They'd give him medicine, let him out," David Carpenter said after Friday's hearing in South Bay Court. "He'd come out, he'd breakdown, have a psychotic break, get into trouble. They would take him back in. They would medicate him, and release him again. It was just a vicious cycle."
The defendant's father says he is satisfied with the judge's decision, and hopes his son will get the psychiatric care he needs.
Judge Raymond Edwards, Jr. said a county psychiatrist interviewed Kai Carpenter early this month and determined that Carpenter has not regained his sanity. Other mental health experts who examined Carpenter say he is a paranoid schizophrenic. The judge said Carpenter did not know he had done anything wrong or illegal when he fatally stabbed his mother inside their Chula Vista home, on Oleander Avenue, in Chula Vista.
According to the judge, Carpenter will stay at the mental hospital until he regains his sanity, or serves the 16 years-to-life term handed down by the judge.
Diane Carpenter worked in the Sweetwater Union High School District since 1987.
