EVERETT — Jurors will have to decide if Jimi Hamilton was in his right mind when he clobbered a Monroe corrections officer, breaking multiple bones in the man’s face.

If Hamilton is convicted of the 2012 assault, he could be facing life in prison under the state’s “three strikes” law.

The trial got under way Tuesday afternoon in Snohomish County Superior Court after two years of legal tussling, including allegations that the state Department of Corrections illegally snooped on Hamilton’s correspondence with his attorneys.

Hamilton, 35, was serving time for his second bank robbery when the assault occurred. He was living in the Special Offender Unit. That part of the Monroe prison houses the state’s most seriously mentally ill offenders.

A Snohomish County jury Tuesday was told that Hamilton is living with mental illness. He has been incarcerated most of his life, including being sent to the Washington State Penitentiary when he was 16, one of his attorneys said. He has spent long stretches in solitary confinement. He has attempted to hang himself, to overdose on drugs and to beat himself to death, said Kelly Canary, an attorney with the Snohomish County Public Defender Association.

“This is what mental illness looks like for Mr. Hamilton,” she said.

Canary said her client went into a “dissociative state” the day of the assault. He believed he was defending himself against an inmate who had once warned him never to be a snitch in prison. He was panicked and fearful that he was going to be attacked because he recently had reported that another inmate and a female corrections officer were having a sexual relationship.

He lost his grip on reality, Canary said.

She told jurors that an expert on solitary confinement is expected to explain that in his state of mind, Hamilton could not have formed the intent to assault the guard.

“He was unable to comprehend the reckless nature of his actions,” Canary said.

Hamilton is expected to testify.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Cindy Larsen told jurors that corrections officers reported that Hamilton was calm after the attack on Nicholas Trout* and that he admitted he had made a big mistake minutes after the victim was knocked unconscious. Before the assault he wrote “coherent and logical” grievances.

Hamilton was mad that Trout wouldn’t let him visit another area in the unit, Larsen said. He raced toward the corrections officer, knocked him to the ground and wailed on him with both hands, she said. A video captured the assault.

Trout “never had a chance to do anything,” Larsen said.

The defendant has been diagnosed with several different mental illnesses over the years, including personality disorder.

“That doesn’t mean he didn’t know what he was doing,” Larsen said. “He was capable of forming intent.”

Hamilton has a history of prison infractions, including assaulting corrections officers. He’s twice been convicted of custodial assault.

Hamilton also made headlines in 2007 when he married a former jail guard a day before he was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for bank robbery. After being given the maximum sentence under the law, Hamilton asked a Pierce County Superior Court judge if justice had been served.

“I think so,” the judge said. “With your track record, I think you’re going to be back in front of us, and you’re going to go away for life.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.

Correction, Sept. 17, 2014: Corrections officer Nicholas Trout’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.