A Lynnwood man on Thursday was found not guilty of killing his father by reason of insanity when he struck the older man a year ago in the head several times with an ax.
The insanity ruling means Bradley Jon Schwan, 37, will be confined under treatment at Western Washington State Hospital until doctors find he is no longer a danger to himself or others.
Schwan told authorities that he was out for a walk March 8 when voices in his head told him to go home “to destroy his father,” court documents said.
Two mental evaluations agreed that Schwan has schizophrenia and was not capable of making a rational decision when he killed his father.
The mental evaluations resulted in an agreed motion by chief criminal deputy prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro and public defender Marybeth Dingledy for the result of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Schwan sometimes had been under mental care, but had not regularly taken his medication, lawyers said. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Larry McKeeman made the finding.
The defendant had been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Everett Schwan, 62, of Lynnwood. Police found the elder Schwan face down on a bed covered with a blanket in his home in the 4400 block of 181st Place SW.
The son had lived periodically with his father for a decade, according to friends of the family.
After the attack, Schwan went to Compass Health, a mental health facility in Edmonds, and told an employee that he had hit his father in the head with an ax.
Lynnwood police went to the home and found Everett Schwan. Officers found a knife and a hatchet in the driveway.
“He also had a large knife, which he said he brought with him because he thought it was going to be ‘all-out war,’” court documents said.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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