Adam Mau-Goffredo, accused of brutally murdering three people at a Tantalus lookout in 2006, was transferred from prison to the Hawai'i State Hospital for treatment and further testing after a judge ruled he is mentally unfit to stand trial.

Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario committed Mau-Goffredo to the Kane'ohe facility "or an appropriate institution for detention, care and treatment for so long as such unfitness shall endure."

Defense attorney Brook Hart said yesterday that Mau-Goffredo was moved on Wednesday.

"He will undergo a standard course of medication and treatment which should last from three to six months," Hart said.

Del Rosario ordered the hospital director to determine "within a reasonable time" whether or not Mau-Goffredo "presents a substantial likelihood of becoming fit to proceed in the future."

A similar finding was made last week in the case of Tadeusz "Ted" Jandura, an 84-year-old survivor of a Nazi death camp who has been awaiting trial since last year on charges that he murdered his wife by stabbing her more than 100 times.

In both cases, three-member panels of court-appointed mental health experts examined the defendants and submitted opinions on whether they are mentally capable of assisting in their own defenses in the criminal cases pending against them.

The examinations did not determine whether Mau-Goffredo or Jandura were legally sane or insane when the offenses were committed.

In the case of Mau-Goffredo, the three-member panel deter-mined last year that he was fit to stand trial. But his defense lawyers submitted further information to Del Rosario, who then directed that the panel re-examine the defendant.

Del Rosario ordered that Mau-Goffredo be taken off anti-psychotic medications that he had been receiving before undergoing additional testing by high-tech MRI machinery at The Queen's Medical Center, according to court records.

FINDING UNANIMOUS

The new findings of the three-member panel of experts have been placed under seal by Del Rosario, but this week he issued a ruling that Mau-Goffredo "is not fit to proceed" in the criminal trial.

Hart said all three members of the examining panel — Drs. Gene Altman, Olaf Gitter and Dennis McClaughlin — agreed that Mau-Goffredo "is incapable of cooperating with and assisting in his own defense."

Mau-Goffredo, 25, is accused of shooting to death a taxi driver, Manh Nguyen, and two bystanders, Jason and Colleen Takamori, at the scenic lookout and then invading a nearby home and robbing a couple the night of July 6, 2006.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, robbery and other felonies, and was being held without bail at Halawa High Security Correctional Facility pending trial.

Surviving family members of the victims last year settled multimillion-dollar damage claims against Mau-Goffredo's mother. Terms of the settlements are under court seal.

Cynthia Lee Calverley, Colleen Takamori's sister, last night said she was not surprised Mau-Goffredo was transferred to the state hospital.

"He was obviously very disturbed," Calverley said by telephone last night from Thousand Oaks, Calif. "The prosecutors did what they could to bring justice to the case."

The death of her sister and brother-in-law "still hurts a lot," Calverley said, adding "there's pain on both sides," referring to Mau-Goffredo's family.

"This has also been a tragedy that has altered the lives of the Nguyen family forever, and I feel very badly for them as well. Let's hope we can all come to terms with this decision and find peace of mind."

Mau-Goffredo has previously been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

An expert hired by the defense to examine him after he was arrested said in a report filed with the court last year that the defendant believed his mental illness "was caused by a drug called 'MK Ultra' secretly given to him in 1997 in Canada and again in 2002."

The expert, New York clinical psychologist Dr. Xavier Amador, said Mau-Goffredo also believed he had been cured of the disease and is "so severely influenced" by delusions that he "lacks a rational, as well as a factual, understanding of the criminal proceedings against him."

In the murder case against Jandura, Circuit Judge Richard Pollack last week suspended proceedings and ordered Jandura transferred to the state hospital for further testing.

His ruling was based on opinions submitted by another three-member panel of experts, two of whom said they believed Jandura is unfit to stand trial while the third said he is fit.

ALLEGED BEATINGS

Jandura is a Canadian citizen who was born in Poland and reportedly "spent time as a concentration camp prisoner in Auschwitz beginning in 1943," a psychiatrist who examined him, Dr. Gene Altman, said in his report to Pollack.

Altman and Dr. Olaf Gitter, another member of the Jandura panel, also were court-appointed experts who examined Mau-Goffredo.

"He states that as a result of being severely beaten and otherwise ill-treated there, he has had chronic headaches ever since," Altman said of Jandura.

"The defendant was clearly unfit to proceed to trial," Altman wrote.

"He is severely depressed and ... cried in response to many of my questions, crying so hard and long that he was unable to answer the questions," the psychiatrist reported.

"He is paranoid and does not believe he can get a fair trial 'because of the Hawaiian religion,'" Altman wrote. "He could not explain this but stated he thinks the Hawaiian religion is why his food is being poisoned."

Gitter told Pollack that, in his opinion, Jandura "is unfit to proceed with his trial due to the fact that he is severely impaired cognitively."

But the third person who examined Jandura, psychologist Dr. Stephen Gainsley, said, "It is the opinion of this examiner that Mr. Jandura is fit and able to stand trial."

Gainsley added "caveats" to his opinion. "Mr. Jandura, although able to respond appropriately to all questions asked of him, is going to answer questions from his delusional frame of reference," Gainsley told the judge.

In committing Jandura to the hospital, Pollack ordered that the defendant undergo "neuropsychological and neurological testing" within 45 days.

The same experts then have another 30 days to review the results of the tests and submit a new report on Jandura's "fitness to proceed," Pollack ordered.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.