‘Paranoid’ and ‘delusional’: Testimony begins in sanity phase for David Machado
David Machado believed pins used to surgically repair his broken wrist following a dirt biking accident contained tracking devices used by the government, according to testimony from his ex-girlfriend.
“The evidence is going to show that for many years, Mr. Machado suffered paranoid, delusional feelings about the government; that the government was exploiting, persecuting him … he believed that one day the government … was going to kill him and his family ,” Machado’s attorney Marcus Mumford said Thursday during opening statements for the sanity phase of his trial.
On March 29, a jury convicted Machado of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Stanislaus County sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Wallace at Fox Grove Park in Hughson on Nov. 13, 2016.
Now it must decide if he was legally insane at the time of the murder, as he has pleaded.
Judge Thomas Zeff told jurors that to find Machado legally insane, all 12 of them must conclude that it’s more likely than not that he had a mental disease or defect that made him incapable of understanding that his actions were morally or legally wrong.
The jury’s decision will mean the difference between Machado spending the rest of his life in prison or being sent to a state hospital.
Mumford said Machado lost access to the antipsychotic drugs he needed two years before the shooting. “His delusions and paranoid behavior intensified … and ultimately culminated in the tragic encounter at Fox Grove Park,” he said.
Dr. Gagandeep Popli testified that he treated Machado from 2009 to 2014. “He presented initially with panic attacks,” Popli said. “He talked about being sexually abused when he was 12. He said at 14, a girl hypnotized him, which took away all the memories but he said the memories came back and he was distressed about that.”
Popli said Machado expressed distrust of everyone around him. He said mental health professionals and law enforcement weren’t taking him seriously and he feared other children were being abused by the same predator who abused him.
Popli testified Machado had delusions about inventing the internet and said the sex offender registry Megan’s List was his idea.
Machado’s ex said he thought he created ‘Star Wars’
Jessica Marple, the mother of Machado’s children, testified Machado also thought he created “Star Wars” and claimed he was Spider-Man and could run up walls.
Marple testified she began dating Machado in 1999 when she was 16.
They had two sons together and for many years Machado “was put together; (he) worked, came home, went to bed,” she testified. When he wasn’t working, he enjoyed dirt biking.
It was several years after a dirt biking accident in which he broke his wrist that Machado began talking about a tracking device in the pins that were in his wrist.
That was when she took him to see Popli. The doctor diagnosed Machado with a psychotic disorder and anxiety and prescribed him with medication to treat both.
For several years, Machado appeared to be responding well to the treatment. “He appeared less paranoid and secretive,” Popli testified.
But in May 2014, something changed again. Machado talked about seeing people lurking in the field around their home, Marple testified. She said she went out and checked the field and told Machado no one was there, but he told her she was a liar.
She took him to an emergency appointment with Popli, who testified it appeared Machado was no longer taking his medication.
It wasn’t long after that, Marple testified, that Popli informed them he no longer took their insurance and referred them to a clinic in Hughson.
The doctor there refused to prescribe the antipsychotic Machado had been taking under Popli’s care because “they thought Dr. Popli’s prescription dosage was too high,” Marple testified.
Machado’s ex said he continued to deteriorate in 2015
Machado’s condition continued to deteriorate, Marple said, and in 2015 she separated from him, went to court and was granted full custody of their children.
Several mental health doctors who interviewed or treated Machado after he was arrested for Wallace’s murder testified Friday morning that he had grandiose delusions about being a child prodigy, becoming an attorney at the age of 14 and inventing some type of mechanism used in movies that made him a millionaire.
Machado told them the government took his money from him and that he thought the police and attorneys in Stanislaus County were conspiring against him.
Under cross examination from the prosecution, Popli testified that he’d ruled out a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. He said schizophrenia leads to grossly disorganized thoughts, while he noted that Machado’s thought process was organized, despite his paranoia and delusions.
Deputy District Attorney Sam Luzadas said in opening statements that he will call as witnesses two mental health professionals who independently interviewed Machado and reviewed case reports. He says both concluded Machado was sane at the time of the murder and knew the consequences of his actions.
Luzadas asked the jury to recall from the guilt phase of the trial, Machado’s actions before and after murdering Wallace. He reminded them that Machado missed his court date in a prior felony case two weeks before the shooting, told people he knew he had a warrant for his arrest but that he would “shoot it out” with police and wouldn’t go back to jail.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Luzadas said, going on to describe how Machado fled the scene after the shooting and carjacked or attempted to carjack several people in his effort to escape capture. This is all evidence that Machado knew his actions were legally and morally wrong, , Luzadas said.
The defense is presenting its case first because it has the burden of proof in the sanity phase. Testimony will continue Monday, April 5.
This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
