SANTA ANA — A 33-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to fatally beating a 70-year-old man in Anaheim on Memorial Day 2021, trying to attack another man in the neighborhood and assaulting two other victims a couple weeks before that.
David Steven Abbott had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and was midway through his trial when his defense attorney and prosecutors began discussing a plea deal. Jurors were dismissed Monday and now the question of whether Abbott was legally sane at the time he killed Caltrans worker Rahmatolah “Davey” Yaghoubi will be left up to Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson, who will hand down her ruling on Tuesday.
Abbott was free on bail when he beat Yaghoubi to death for attacks on May 15, 2021. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon while admitting sentencing enhancements for attempted premeditated murder and the personal use of a deadly weapon in those attacks on two victims.
Hanson sentenced Abbott to eight years to life in prison for those crimes. But if she finds he was legally insane at the time of the fatal beating, then the prison sentence would be suspended until his sanity was restored in a mental health facility, where he would be sent to indefinitely.
In Yaghoubi’s death, Abbott pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and felony assault for an unrelated attack nearby.
Abbott’s attorney, Lee Stonum of the Alternate Defender’s Office, said his client has been diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic.
Yaghoubi’s brother, John Yaghoubi, protested to Hanson about what he felt was an imbalance in the process.
“It is shocking to me that the person who murdered my brother has more rights than my brother,” Yaghoubi said. “To me, it is so disappointing a person can get away with an insanity plea.”
A shirtless Abbott with a large dog in tow approached Luis Javier Vera about noon that Memorial Day at the victim’s home. Vera was in the driveway of the…
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