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    Man who killed father on Laguna Niguel trail committed to mental-health hospital
    • May 1, 2023

    A 22-year-old man was committed indefinitely on Monday, May 1, to a state mental-health facility after he was found to have been insane when he killed his father on a Laguna Niguel trail the day after Thanksgiving in 2018.

    Maximilian Gregory Ludwig was convicted March 21 of murder with a special-circumstances allegation of lying in wait before Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue, who also found the defendant was insane when he killed Christopher Ludwig, 59.

    Ludwig could have faced life in prison without the possibility of parole, but because he was found to have been insane he will be committed indefinitely and can petition for release when his sanity has been restored.

    As has been the case throughout the legal proceedings, many relatives and friends attended the hearing to support Ludwig.

    Four out of five psychiatric experts who analyzed the defendant found that he was insane at the time. Some of the experts said Ludwig was a paranoid schizophrenic who believed he had to kill his father because the victim was killing others, including relatives.

    Ludwig’s delusions led him to believe his father was “evil” and that when he called authorities they would understand what he did was OK, some of the experts said.

    After Ludwig had some treatment for schizophrenia, he was “quite disturbed” about what he did, psychologist Richard Lettieri said.

    Another expert, psychologist Roberto Flores Deapodaca, was the lone dissenter who said Ludwig was sane at the time.

    Ludwig killed his father on a trail near Highlands Avenue.

    Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said Ludwig took his father out for a hike on the same trail the day before. Donahue noted that the defendant knocked the victim down and then attacked him with rocks until he was dead.

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    ​ Orange County Register 

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