Stayner Enters Insanity Plea in Killings

Former motel handyman Cary Stayner pleaded innocent by reason of insanity Wednesday to the 1999 killings of three Yosemite National Park tourists, after his attorneys claimed he suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses.

Stayner’s attorneys had been laying the groundwork for an insanity defense, but made the decision official after Superior Court Judge Thomas Hastings rejected two new requests to throw Stayner’s confessions out of his upcoming trial.

Hastings explained to Stayner that if he is convicted, a jury would consider whether he was insane at the time of the killings.

If he were to be found guilty but insane, he could be sentenced to life in a mental institution. If he is found guilty and sane, Stayner could be executed.