Jurors to decide fate of Camarillo caregiver in string of violent crimes

Editor's note: This story has been updated.

A Ventura County jury has begun deliberations over the case against a Camarillo man pleading insanity in the assaults of two elderly women and the attempted murder of a 6-year-old child.

The jury went out shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday after a 40-day trial for Joel Gonzales, who is accused of committing the crimes over three days in October 2020. Jurors recessed for the weekend Friday afternoon following about four hours of deliberations, but have not yet announced a verdict. They are due to resume deliberations Monday morning.

Attorneys for the prosecution and defense remained deeply divided over the role that mental illness should play in the verdict as they made final arguments for more than six hours over two days in a Ventura courtroom.

Insanity trials are generally held in two phases in California. In the first phase, jurors decide whether a defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of committing the crimes. If acquitted, the case ends. If not, the trial goes to a second phase to determine whether the defendant was legally insane and should be found not guilty on that basis.

Prosecutor Tom Steele said the "big question" for the jury in the first phase was the same one he invoked when the trial started: Did Gonzales intend to rape and kill?

Regardless of the defendant’s testimony describing various mental health issues, “you can still answer yes,” Steele told the jury Wednesday.

Defense attorney John Taylor argued strongly against Steele's position Thursday, saying he was offended by the prosecutor's dismissal of mental illness as an explanation for the acts of the 28-year-old man.

“It played the primary role,” Taylor told the jury. “You know that.”

He said he believed the jury could see what was objectively true – that Gonzales had “a mental break.”

Gonzales was driven into a state of psychosis and lost touch with reality due to the anxiety and stress associated with childhood sexual abuse that he had finally disclosed to a trusted relative, Taylor said.

In his rebuttal, Steele said mental illness is not a factor in the first phase of the trial unless it's relevant to the question of whether Gonzales intended to rape and kill.

"Mental illness has to prohibit him from forming the intent," he argued.

At issue in the trial is a chain of events that began Oct. 15, 2020, with the alleged assaults of two elderly residents of the Royal Gardens care home in Camarillo where Gonzales worked as a caregiver.

A day later, Gonzales walked into a stranger's home, refused to leave at gunpoint, and was arrested on suspicion of trespassing and prowling. That night, he went to his relatives' home, where he admits to repeatedly trying to kill the 6-year-old girl who was staying with his niece for her first sleepover.

Gonzales testified in his own defense during the trial, blaming his actions on untreated mental illness. He was following what he believed were instructions from a magazine and a television set telling him to rape and kill to avoid being hurt or killed himself, he said. He began taking the anti-psychotic drug Risperidone shortly after he was arrested and was lucid during his testimony.

The girl also testified during the trial, but according to Steele, cowered on the stand to avoid seeing Gonzales in the courtroom. Gonzales tried to kill her by squeezing her neck, bashing her head on a hardwood floor, then putting an arm hold around her neck before she was rescued by a teenager who lived in the house.

Although she survived, she temporarily lost consciousness, and the long-lasting impact of her physical injuries is unknown. Steele said she is still having problems with balance and could be at risk for stroke later in life, while Taylor said her injuries did not rise to the level of "great bodily injury" that's being alleged. Both the prosecution and defense recognize the emotional trauma from the attack.

Gonzales has been charged with committing the attempted murder "willfully, deliberately and with premeditation," although the defense claims it was an impulsive act.

He was charged with assault with intent to commit rape during a residential burglary in the case of one of the care home residents. The burglary allegation is based on the idea that he had formed the intent to attack the woman, who was described as being 82 years old, before he entered her room. The defense says he only decided after he entered her room due to his psychosis, which would not constitute burglary.

In the case of the other woman, he is charged with kidnapping with the intent to rape a disabled person and committing a lewd act upon a dependent adult. The 90-year-old woman was diagnosed with dementia and is now deceased.

Gonzales had never been arrested before this chain of events transpired, Taylor said.

Gonzales remains in the main jail in Ventura without bail.

Kathleen Wilson covers courts, mental health and local government issues for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at kathleen.wilson@vcstar.com. or 805-206-8805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Jurors to decide fate of Camarillo caregiver in string of violent crimes