Mental patient ruled insane in Nevada County killings

NEVADA CITY, Calif. -- A mental patient accused of killing three people and wounding two others in a January 2001 shooting rampage was found innocent by reason of insanity Tuesday by a judge who ordered him committed to a state mental hospital.

Nevada County Superior Court Judge Carl Bryan handed down his ruling following a weeklong hearing for defendant Scott Thorpe.

Thorpe was charged with shooting three people at the Nevada County mental health clinic, where he was a client, and shooting a manager and cook at a nearby restaurant, where he suspected employees were poisoning his food.

Two of the mental health workers and the restaurant manager died, and a sixth person broke a leg fleeing from the mental health clinic.

Thorpe was arrested that night at his home in Smartville, about 15 miles from the shootings, after a daylong manhunt and two hours of telephone negotiations. His brother, a Sacramento police officer, turned him in.

Officers found numerous firearms and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of rounds of ammunition at Thorpe's home, as well as four gas masks and night-vision binoculars.

Thorpe was initially found incompetent to stand trial and was sent first to Atascadero State Hospital and then to Napa State Hospital. The medical director at Napa said last May that Thorpe's competency had been restored.