Jury Finds Pigman Insane
Friday, March 13, 2009

Rather than face 25 years to life in prison, Pigman will be sent to a mental hospital with a possibility of release.

Pigman

PASADENA.—Ajury determined last Friday that the son of a Caltech professor was insane at the time he fatally stabbed and beat his girlfriend, a Japanese exchange student who was attending school in the United States.

The Pasadena Superior Court jury convicted George Pigman IV, 27, on Feb. 23 of first-degree murder for the May 7, 2005, slaying of Eimi Yamada, who was living in San Gabriel.

Pigman, who is due back in court March 30, is expected to be sent to a state mental hospital. He could have faced a 25-year-to-life term in state prison if jurors had determined he was sane at the time of Yamada’s killing.

Pigman will now be evaluated by a yet-to-be-identified Community Program Director, according to Judge Lisa B. Lench. The results of that evaluation will determine his status; whether he is confined to a state hospital or treated as an outpatient.

Detective Joseph Sheehy, who initially investigated the murder, was disappointed.
“First [the jury found] him guilty of first-degree murder, then they find him insane? It doesn’t fit,” Sheehy said.

Pigman sat without moving while the verdict was read. His parents thanked his attorneys outside of the courtroom after Pigman was taken back into custody.

Yamada’s family was not in court, having gone back to Japan several weeks earlier.

The trial lasted for approximately six weeks, with the prosecution laying out its case by calling on police officers, DNAexperts, blood splatter experts and witnesses in the guilt phase of the trial.

The defense had almost no cross-examination for any of the witnesses the prosecution called. Co-counsel for Pigman, Public Defender Darby Williams, did not contest in her closing for the guilt phase the fact that Pigman had committed the crime.

“This is not a case of whodunit,” Williams said.

The 21-year-old Yamada’s body was found shortly after 2 a.m. on May 7, 2005, in the 8500 block of Palma Vista Street. She had been beaten and stabbed with barbecue tongs.

Pigman was arrested the same day, after sheriff’s deputies got a call reporting a nude and bloody prowler atop a home in the 6800 block of La Presa Avenue in San Gabriel.

Apsychiatrist who examined Pigman at the Twin Towers jail after he was arrested testified during the trial that he suffers from Bipolar Idisorder and was likely in a manic state when he killed Yamada.

One of Pigman’s attorneys, Jose Colon, said he believed the jury’s finding that Pigman was insane was “the right choice.’’

“George, to this day, is still not all there. There’s definitely something wrong with him,’’ Colon said, noting that several other doctors came to the same conclusion that Pigman suffered from bipolar disorder with psychotic features.

“From day one Ialways thought George suffered from a mental disorder and that the mental disorder figured in the killing of Miss Yamada,” he said.

The defense attorney said Pigman will be evaluated to determine which facility he should be sent to “potentially for the rest of his life.’’

According to Colon, the only chance for Pigman to be released would be if doctors determine that he is no longer insane and a “restoration of sanity hearing’’ is held, a process that could go on for weeks.

State law requires a court to hold the hearing to determine whether the person would be a danger to the health and safety of others.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, said the verdict was a disappointment.

“We obviously felt that he was sane at the time the crime was committed,” she said. “The jury obviously disagreed with our evidence.”

Pigman studied journalism and English at Pasadena City College from fall 2001 to spring 2004. His father is an English professor at Caltech.

Yamada began studying English in July 2004 at the Poly Languages Institute in Pasadena and also took ESL classes at Pasadena City College in January 2005 and February 2005.