Criminal proceedings were suspended Jan. 7 for a 22-year-old Point Loma man charged with killing his parents in their Sunset Cliffs home Nov. 28 after his attorney told a judge he doubted his client’s mental competency for arraignment. Attorney Richard Gates said his client, Peter David Haynes, whose last court appearance was on Dec. 3 in San Diego Superior Court, has schizophrenia. Haynes is accused of killing his father, David Haynes, 61, and his mother, Lissa Haynes, 62, the morning after Thanksgiving. His father called 911 at 3:09 a.m. after he and his wife were shot. San Diego Superior Court Judge David Szumowski ordered Haynes to participate in a Feb. 5 meeting with a psychologist, who will write a report and forward it to a judge before a Feb. 20 hearing. Another judge will determine whether Haynes is mentally competent to stand trial. If found incompetent, Haynes would likely be sent to a state mental hospital for treatment that would include anti-psychosis medications.
“His understanding of his role in what happened is muddled by the mental illness,” said Gates to reporters afterward.
When a television reporter asked Gates if Haynes has expressed remorse, Gates said the mental illness doesn’t cause him to have much emotion. “The schizophrenia plays a role in what happened,” Gates said. The District Attorney’s Office filed three special circumstance charges in the case that could lead to the death penalty or a life sentence in prison without parole. The special circumstances allege murder during a burglary, murder while lying in wait and multiple murders. Haynes remains in the central jail without bail and has yet to be arraigned on the charges.
–Neal Putnam