The mental condition of the man charged in the Tantalus triple slayings deteriorated and he was delusional after he stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication, his psychiatrist told a state judge last month.

Richard Thomas Gibson testified that Adam Mau-Goffredo begins losing touch with reality when he stops taking his medication for paranoid schizophrenia, according to a transcript of the doctor's testimony.

Gibson indicated that Mau-Goffredo had stopped taking the medication when they last met on March 27.

"His delusional system seemed to be stronger. His hygiene had decreased. ... His ability to understand reality, I think, was also more distorted at that point," the doctor said.

He testified that a person with Mau-Goffredo's condition who stops taking medication becomes "less in touch with reality."

"They misperceive what's happening around them," Gibson said.

The testimony came at a guardianship hearing for Mau-Goffredo. His mother, Lynette Mau, and Palolo caretaker William R. Carroll Jr. had asked the court to be appointed co-guardians for him.

Part-time Honolulu Family Court District Judge Darryl Choy held the hearing on June 14 and approved the guardianship after listening to Gibson's testimony.

Mau and Carroll were in the courtroom, but did not speak, according to the transcript.

Gibson yesterday declined to comment. Also declining to comment was Keith Kiuchi, Carroll's lawyer. Mau's lawyer Howard Luke could not be reached for comment.

Mau-Goffredo, 23, who is being held without bail, was indicted by the O'ahu grand jury on Wednesday on 18 felony charges including counts of first-degree and second-degree murder, robbery, theft, firearm charges and kidnapping.

He is accused of shooting taxi driver Manh Nguyen and a couple, Jason and Colleen Takamori, at a Tantalus lookout the night of July 6.

He later committed a home invasion robbery at a Round Top Drive home and stole a Jaguar before he was arrested in that car later that night, according to authorities.

ARRAIGNMENT NEXT WEEK

City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has said it appears the slayings were done "execution style," with the victims shot in the head.

Mau-Goffredo is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday before Circuit Judge Derrick Chan. At the hearing, Chan will consider a request by city prosecutors to continue holding Mau-Goffredo without bail.

The man's mental condition is likely to be a focus in his criminal case, but his defense lawyer, Brook Hart, has indicated it is premature to say whether he will raise the insanity defense.

Hart said he did not have information on whether his client was taking medication at the time of the murders.

According to the transcript of the guardianship hearing obtained by The Advertiser:

Gibson testified he had been seeing Mau-Goffredo since November 2003.

He said they would meet once a week or once every other week, but when Mau-Goffredo was doing fairly well on his medication, it was every couple of months.

Gibson acknowledged there were episodes when Mau-Goffredo stopped his medication.

Gibson testified he recalled meeting with Mau-Goffredo and Carroll in November 2005 after they went to San Francisco, where Mau-Goffredo became "quite paranoid and agitated."

He said police were "called to help intervene."

'FALSE BELIEF SYSTEM'

Because Carroll did not have any legal status, an apparent reference to a guardianship relationship, he had a difficult time dealing with the authorities there, Gibson said. Gibson was not asked to elaborate on the San Francisco incident.

He agreed with attorney Francis O'Brien, the lawyer for the mother and Carroll in the guardianship proceedings, that Mau-Goffredo needed someone to make decisions for him, especially when he was off his medication.

Gibson also affirmed a letter he sent saying Mau-Goffredo suffers from "schizophrenia paranoid type with residual symptoms."

He said the condition "profoundly" affects Mau-Goffredo's ability to take care of himself.

Gibson described the underlying problems of schizophrenia as a thought disorder in which the brain is affected.

"And often these patients suffer from delusional belief systems, perceptual abnormalities, such as hallucinations. Delusions are a false belief system that stand outside of normal cultural beliefs, and Adam does suffer from this," Gibson testified.

At the end of the hearing, which lasted about seven minutes, Choy found that Mau-Goffredo is "incapacitated" and approved the appointment of his mother and Carroll as co-guardians.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.