On Sept. 8, Santa Maria resident Nicholas Bendle, 22, pleaded guilty to murdering 68-year-old Frederick Holgate. The case has received national attention because of the brutal way Holgate died: On Aug. 1, 2009, Bendle attacked Holgate with a hatchet while the elderly man was going for a morning walk near his Santa Maria home. The two men didn’t know each other.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release that it “has accepted that the defendant was legally insane at the time he committed the murder.”
Bendle’s attorneys have asserted in court that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. The 22-year-old will now be committed to a state mental hospital, where he could spend the rest of his life. He is expected to return to court later this month, at which time the judge will determine where to send him.
This article appears in Sep 15-22, 2011.