Judge in Hilbun Trial to Keep Jury Working

SANTA ANA — Jurors were deadlocked Tuesday on whether former postal worker Mark Richard Hilbun was insane during a bloody two-day rampage in 1993 that left his mother and best friend dead and five others wounded.

Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey directed the six men and six women to return today, and the judge told lawyers he planned to urge further deliberations.

After taking one vote, the jury foreman said panelists were stuck on the sanity question for all 14 charges, but he did not indicate the breakdown. Asked if further instructions from the judge were likely to help, the foreman answered, “I don’t believe so.”

The sanity phase is crucial because the 42-year-old Hilbun could face the death penalty if he is found to have been sane during a shooting spree that defense lawyers contend was inspired by his belief that the world was about to end.

The same jury found Hilbun guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and other felony charges of robbery, attempted robbery, attempted kidnapping and cruelty to animals. The verdict included special circumstances that could bring the death sentence.

The rampage began early May 6, 1993, when Hilbun fatally stabbed his 63-year-old mother, Frances, in her Corona del Mar home and killed her pet cocker spaniel, Golden.

Hilbun then went to the Dana Point post office where he worked and opened fire on three co-workers, killing his best friend and wounding another colleague. Shots missed a supervisor who had sought to fire Hilbun for stalking Kim Springer, a female colleague.

Hilbun fled in a pickup he had stocked with survival gear, including a kayak that defense lawyers said he planned to use to escape the apocalypse with Springer. He shot and injured two more people and tried to rob three others, wounding two, before he was captured during a massive manhunt.

The prosecutor argued that Hilbun had taken evasive action, such as changing his license plate numbers, that proved he knew what he was doing.