People v. Patton CA4/3

FACTS

In 1993, Patton began experiencing increasingly severe paranoid delusions as a result of schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that results in mood swings and paranoid delusions. He fell into a cycle of engaging in impulsive criminal behavior, receiving psychiatric treatment, not taking his prescribed psychotropic medications, and then experiencing worsening symptoms. In 1994, Patton impulsively traveled from Minnesota to Orange County, where he murdered a woman with a tire iron because he believed she was a government agent conspiring to get him. He pleaded guilty to first degree murder, but the trial court found him not guilty by reason of insanity. He was then committed to a state hospital. In 2006, Patton was released to community outpatient treatment. However, his outpatient status was revoked less than a year later because he

2 left the county without permission and acquired a knife in violation of his outpatient terms and conditions. In 2023, the Orange County Health Care Agency and state hospital concluded Patton could be safely treated in the community and recommended to the trial court that he be transferred to outpatient…