VISTA, Calif. (AP) - A former Marine veteran who served in Iraq has been sentenced for stabbing to death a man in Oceanside after claiming a secret government agency made him do it.
Thirty-three-year-old Mikhail Schmidt was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Schmidt stabbed and killed 37-year-old plumber-in-training Jacob Bravo at a construction site in 2017.
KNSD-TV says Schmidt told authorities he “craved the taste of blood” and that a government agency called Agent Orange had “activated” him to kill Bravo, whom he didn’t know.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted of murder last month.
His attorney argued Schmidt, who served six tours in Iraq, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
But a psychologist testified that Schmidt tested off the charts as a “pathological liar.”
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