Ex-Postal Carrier Sentenced in Deadly Rampage
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SANTA ANA — As several of his surviving victims watched, a former postal worker who killed his mother and a close friend and attempted to kill seven people during a two-day rampage was sentenced on Tuesday to nine life terms in prison.
Mark Richard Hilbun, with shaggy gray hair and a long beard, sat impassively as the sentence was imposed by Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey.
Hilbun, 42, was convicted of the 1993 crimes by a jury last August. But the panel later deadlocked when trying to agree on whether he was insane during the bloody crimes. At first, Hilbun claimed insanity, but dropped that contention when prosecutors said last fall that they would not seek his execution for the crimes.
Prosecutors said after a two-hour sentencing hearing Tuesday that they are satisfied with the sentence because it means that Hilbun will never be released from prison.
Defense lawyers had contended during the trial that Hilbun was driven by delusions of a coming apocalypse and had a history of manic depression and schizophrenia.
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