The Elkridge man who donned an animal costume and threatened to blow up a Baltimore television station in April pleaded guilty to five felony counts Wednesday but was found not criminally responsible.
Alex Brizzi, 25, acknowledged in Baltimore Circuit Court that he committed second-degree arson, second-degree assault and offenses related to the fake bomb he wore during the April 28 incident at the Fox 45 studios on 41st Street.
Judge Gale E. Rasin committed Brizzi to Spring Grove Hospital Center, where he is to receive treatment for the schizophrenia that doctors believe convinced him he was acting under orders from God during a standoff with police.
Police shot Brizzi three times after he ignored commands to stop, they said.
Rasin, who heads the city's Mental Health Court, said the argument that he was not criminally responsible "is rarely used and rarely is successful." But she said the reports she received from Brizzi's psychiatric examinations showed that he was not in control of himself.
"The problem with his illness is that the voices are very real. He hears them," she said. "I'm not going to argue with him that he didn't hear the voice of God."
Brizzi was dressed in what appeared to be a full-body hedgehog jumpsuit and boots when he set his car on fire, barged into the Fox 45 offices and threatened to detonate a bomb if the station didn't broadcast a message he had recorded on a thumb drive.
The fake explosive device Brizzi had been wearing was found to be chocolate bars wrapped in foil and attached to a circuit board with wires.
Present in the courtroom Wednesday was Jourael Apostolides, the security guard who was credited with placating Brizzi for about 45 minutes, keeping him in the station's vestibule and summoning police.
Apostolides told the judge he is suffering from anxiety and has had trouble sleeping since the incident.
After the hearing, the 30-year-old Columbia man said he did not believe justice had been done.
"As a victim, it seems like I've been just left out to dry," he said.
The finding that Brizzi was not criminally responsible means that he will be eligible for conditional release if doctors find that his mental illness is under control and if they can persuade an administrative law judge that he's no longer a threat to himself or others.
A shortage of psychiatric inpatient spots has made it difficult for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to find room for other criminal defendants in recent months. But prosecutor Tracy Varda said Brizzi will be transferred to Spring Grove by Thursday.
Brizzi, who had been held in the Baltimore city jail in what his lawyer called "horrid conditions," was brought into court wearing a bright yellow prison jumpsuit and what appeared to be new white gym shoes.
Slight of stature and wearing a well-trimmed beard, he answered the judge's questions in a firm voice.
Rasin, reading from a doctor's report, revealed new details of Brizzi's delusions in the weeks leading up to the incident
According to the judge, Brizzi told his doctors that he spent a lot of time studying and began dwelling on the meaning of the structure of DNA molecules. He was said to have become obsessed with the number six and became convinced that he was being warned of a mass extinction event on June 6.
Rasin said Brizzi tried to persuade his then-fiancee to spread the word by traveling with him to New York and letting him take her hostage with a fake gun. The judge said the fiancee refused and moved out.
On the day before the incident, Rasin said, Brizzi thought he had received a message over his TV telling him to follow through with his plan.
Varda read into the court record a letter from Fox 45 station manager William Fanshawe describing the traumatic effect the incident had on employees and the security precautions the station was forced to adopt after the standoff and shooting.
"This incident has changed the perception of the atmosphere of our workplace forever," he wrote.
Apostolides told the court that Brizzi didn't seem out of control.
"It seemed premeditated," the security guard said. "He knew he wanted to get his point across."
Rasin praised Apostolides' actions as heroic but told him that under the law, Brizzi could not be held legally responsible.
The judge told Brizzi he did bear "moral responsibility" for the impact his actions had on the station employees.
"Each person has a moral and ethical responsibility for his own life. You have a responsibility to yourself and society to deal with that," she told him. "You didn't give one consideration to the people you terrorized."
Rasin urged him to work with psychiatrists to come to grips with his schizophrenia.
When invited to make a statement, Brizzi declined. His attorney assured the court his client would try.
"He is committed to dealing with these demons," attorney Joshua Treem said.
twitter.com/michaeltdresser