RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (AP) — A former Westminster police detective who blamed the antidepressant Zoloft for his behavior was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and raping a waitress at gunpoint in a brutal attack, prosecutors said.
A San Bernardino County jury will now have to determine whether Marine war veteran Anthony Nicholas Orban was sane at the time of the attack.
Orban's attorney argued during trial that his client suffered a psychotic break because he was taking Zoloft and was effectively unconscious when he kidnapped the woman in the Ontario Mills mall parking lot in San Bernardino County.
Prosecutors say the off-duty officer used his service weapon to force the woman to drive to a self-storage lot where he sexually assaulted her and shoved a gun in her mouth. The woman escaped from the April 3, 2010, attack when Orban was distracted by an incoming cellphone call, prosecutors said.
Orban, who is 32, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. However, defense attorney James Blatt said in court that he intended to argue Orban was not guilty by reason of unconsciousness.
The sanity phase of the trial will begin Tuesday.
The woman, who was 25 at the time of the attack, testified during trial that Orban sexually assaulted her, punched, choked and stuck a gun in her mouth and took cellphone photos of her.
She testified the attacker did not appear disoriented or unconscious, but at the end of the attack he looked at her and asked, "Who are you? How did I get here? Whose car is this?" according to the San Bernardino Sun.