Jurors to decide Abrams’ state of mind

Deepa Bharath

SANTA ANA -- Tears flowed and emotions surfaced as prosecution and

defense attorneys wrapped up their closing arguments Thursday in the

sanity phase of the trial for convicted murderer Steven Allen Abrams.

The jury on Monday will begin deliberating whether Abrams was legally

insane on May 3, 1999, when he drove his Cadillac into a crowded

playground at a Costa Mesa preschool, killing Sierra Soto, 4, and Brandon

Wiener, 3, and injuring several others.

Some members of the victims’ families cried and others shook their

heads in reaction to some of the statements made by the attorneys

Thursday.

Sierra’s parents, Cindy and Eric Soto, held hands as Deputy Dist.

Atty. Debora Lloyd addressed the court. Cindy Soto walked out of the

courtroom in tears once Lloyd had finished her closing argument, seeking

justice for the children.

Lloyd said the defense’s theory that Abrams suffers from mental

illness had no basis. She argued that Abrams’ psychosis was a result of

his constant use of marijuana, methamphetamines and cocaine, which began

at age 14.

“He has taken huge quantities of drugs,” she said, “and continued to

take marijuana. He finally snapped after all these years and what do we

have? Dead children.”

Public Defender Denise Gragg, who bore the burden of proving her

client was insane when he committed the murders, argued that Abrams

believed in his heart that what he did was “morally right.”

She said that Abrams killed the children to get back at the “brain

wave people” he believed were manipulating him and tried to make him a

murderer. Continuing, she said Abrams imagined the scenario as a war

between him and the brain wave people, and to him, killing the children

was fair because it was a war -- just as it was for the United States to

bomb a busload of children in Kosovo.

Gragg said Abrams believed that the Southcoast Early Childhood

Learning Center was the “epicenter of the conspiracy” created by the

brain wave people.

Abrams, who has not exhibited much emotion during the entire trial,

appeared uneasy Thursday, constantly rubbing his face and touching his

hair.

If the jury determines that Abrams was sane at the time of the

murders, he could face the death penalty. If jurors decide he is legally

insane, he could spend his life in a mental institution.

Lloyd attempted to convince jurors that the defense failed to prove

Abrams is schizophrenic, saying that he has not displayed any of the

usual symptoms.

“He went to work every day,” Lloyd said. “He raised his daughter. He

has friends. He was even pleasant to customers.”

What Abrams has exhibited, she said, are symptoms of long-term drug

use.

“Visual and auditory illusions are typical of drug-induced psychosis,”

she said. “He’s been doing marijuana every day and we do know that causes

paranoia.”

Lloyd’s final arguments were loaded with emotion as she told jurors

that Abrams “knew what he did was wrong.”

“The children are the casualty of his war,” she said. “He has said he

is a bad person. He called himself a scumbag. And now it’s everybody

else’s fault that these children are dead.”