Newhall man convicted of kidnapping, attempted murder

A Newhall man accused of threatening to torture family members with a machete before driving the family pickup truck off the side of a cliff and 500 feet down an embankment – with family members onboard — was convicted Wednesday of kidnapping and attempted murder.

Sean McClelland, 46, whose mental competency was called into question by lawyers last year, appeared in San Fernando Superior Court on Wednesday, when he was found guilty.

“He was convicted today of one count of kidnapping and one count of premeditated attempted murder,” Paul Eakins said citing court records.

A second charge of kidnapping initially filed against him “was dismissed” Wednesday, Eakins said. Three other counts filed against McClelland were also dismissed — two counts of criminal threats and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

McClelland is scheduled to appear in back in court Feb. 1 for sentencing.

McClelland was arrested

July 4, 2016, on suspicion of kidnapping and assault after he allegedly threatened to take family members who were allegedly with him at

the time into the mountain to torture them.

He then drove a family pickup truck off the side of a cliff — more than 500 feet down an embankment with his father in the truck.

For more than an hour prior to his arrest, McClelland

eluded firefighters in the steep hillside brush south of Templin Highway off the northbound lanes of Interstate 5, near the freeway’s upper crossover after the pickup truck he was in crashed, officials said at the time.

McClelland, who was injured, was transported to a hospital via a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter.

A man, identified as his father, was also injured and taken to the hospital, Lt. Rob Hahnlein of the Santa Clarita

Valley Sheriff’s Station told The Signal at the time of McClelland’s arrest.

On Jan. 25, 2017, McClelland was first ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and return to court for a “1368 hearing” on Thursday with the findings.