Attorneys for the man accused of the triple homicide at Tantalus Lookout last year are disputing a determination that he is mentally competent to stand trial, asking that he undergo additional neuropsychological testing.

A court-appointed panel of three experts has determined that Adam Mau-Goffredo, 25, is competent to stand trial for the three murders and related crimes, and a court hearing on the status of the case is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

No trial date has been set while legal arguments continue over Mau-Goffredo's current mental condition.

Mau-Goffredo believes he has been cured of paranoid schizophrenia that he says was caused by a drug called "MK Ultra" secretly given to him in 1997 in Canada and again in 2002, according to court papers filed by his lawyers.

He is accused of shooting to death a taxi driver and two bystanders at the scenic lookout and then invading a nearby home and robbing its occupants the night of July 6, 2006. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, robbery and other felonies.

Mau-Goffredo is being held without bail at Halawa High Security Correctional Facility pending trial.

Dr. Xavier Amador, a New York clinical psychologist who interviewed Mau-Goffredo for seven hours over a period of five days earlier this year, said the defendant is "so severely influenced" by delusions that he "lacks a rational, as well as a factual, understanding of the criminal proceedings against him," according to court papers filed by Mau-Goffredo's lawyers.

Mau-Goffredo believes "that his psychotic disorder was caused by a single dose of an unknown drug in 1997 and again in 2002, a drug Mr. Mau calls 'MK Ultra,' " Amador reported.

That's an apparent reference to a CIA-sponsored mind-control research project conducted in the 1950s and 1960s that was the subject of congressional hearings in the 1970s. Numerous drugs including LSD were tested during the research, which involved both knowing and unwitting test subjects. The code name for the project was MK Ultra.

"Mr. Mau does not believe he is currently mentally ill," Amador said. "He told me — as he has told many others — that his mental illness was temporary, having been caused by being drugged by unknown agents in Canada in 1997 and while on a boat cruise in 2002," the psychologist reported.

"His mental illness has since been, in his words, 'cured,' subsequent to being given Haldol (an antipsychotic medication) after he attacked a prison guard on Sept. 15, 2006," Amador reported.

Mau-Goffredo's belief "is frankly impossible for several reasons," Amador wrote, "not the least of which is that we do not yet have a cure for schizophrenia."

But the "delusional belief" in a cure "greatly influences his understanding of the (legal) proceedings and his apparent inability to assist his counsel," wrote the doctor, who was hired by Mau-Goffredo's defense team.

"He is certain that the criminal case against him is an 'open and shut case' and that the moment the jury hears his account of what happened, he 'will be found not guilty' and permitted to go home," Amador said.

"Specifically, he plans — against his attorney's advice — to tell the jury he was drugged by unidentified agents and made mentally ill for a period of about five or more years," Amador wrote.

DEFENDANT DELUSIONAL

Another defense expert who interviewed Mau-Goffredo, Dr. Pablo Stewart, said the defendant "told us that the shooting and the court case were 'a government project' and that 'everyone knows this and all the U.S. government has to do is cooperate.' "

The defendant has "grandiose delusions" that center on "his close ties with government agencies like the CIA, FBI and Secret Service" and also with the Vatican, Amador said.

Mau-Goffredo believes "he can simply summon the Pope from the Vatican to meet with (him) and secure (his) release from prison, or else there will be 'hell on earth,' " Amador said.

This belief, despite the antipsychotic medication he is receiving "causes me to wonder whether Mr. Mau will ever be competent to stand trial," Amador reported.

Letters and notes that Mau-Goffredo has written to Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations, whom the defendant believes to be a personal friend, and other officials also were included in papers filed by the defense lawyers.

One of the court-appointed experts who examined Mau-Goffredo, Dr. Olaf Gitter, said in his June 6 report to the court, "in my opinion, Mr. Mau is fit to proceed to trial."

Mau-Goffredo "knows his attorneys by name, expressed confidence in their services, as well as his own willingness to cooperate with his attorneys in his own best defense," Gitter wrote.

"In my opinion, Mr. Mau can participate in the planning of his legal strategy. For instance, he would be willing to plead 'not guilty by reason of insanity,' if advised to do so by his attorney," Gitter continued.

"On the other hand, while he understood my explanation of plea bargaining, he expressed the opinion that he would not be willing to plea bargain since in his opinion the NGI defense is the best one," Gitter wrote.

Defense attorney Brook Hart and the prosecuting attorneys office yesterday declined comment.

'CONSEQUENCES'

In a legal memo filed July 6, deputy prosecutor Kevin Takata expressed "serious reservations" about a defense desire to conduct additional neuropsychological tests of Mau-Goffredo, including magnetic resonance imaging of the defendant's brain.

"In order to properly conduct these tests, a variety of measures will have to be undertaken, the most serious of which involves defendant going off his current antipsychotic medication," Takata wrote.

"Such an action, at the very least, leaves the court with no way of knowing what the consequences could be," the memo continued.

"His current medical state, including his fitness to proceed, could be compromised," Takata wrote.

Such tests should be postponed "until such time as they may be deemed necessary at the sanity stage of the proceedings," the prosecutor's memo said.

That sanity phase would involve new examinations by court-appointed experts to determine if Mau-Goffredo was legally insane at the time of the offenses.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.