Man guilty of killing doctor
An attorney for Stanwood Elkus, 79, says he was insane at time of 2013 shooting.
Stanwood Elkus faces a life term in the 2013 shooting of a Newport Beach urologist.
An Orange County jury Monday swiftly found a 79year-old retired barber guilty of fatally shooting a urologist inside the doctor’s Newport Beach office in 2013.
The jury deliberated roughly 40 minutes before finding Stanwood Elkus of Lake Elsinore guilty of firstdegree murder for making an appointment with Ronald Gilbert, 52, using a fake name and shooting the doctor 10 times when he walked into the exam room.
Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement allegation of personal use of a gun and a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait.
Because Elkus pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge by reason of insanity, the trial will move to the sanity phase, in which jurors will be asked to determine whether Elkus is legally insane.
If jurors determine Elkus was insane at the time of the killing, he will be sent to a mental health facility. If they reject the claim, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Testimony is expected to begin Tuesday.
After jurors filed out of the courtroom following the verdict, Elkus — who sat hunched forward in a wheelchair — asked Judge Patrick Donahue why he wasn’t allowed to see the jury while it was deliberating.
“I want to say something,” he said. “I want to talk to the jury.”
Donahue said he would consider his request, but noted that he’s rarely allowed it. Elkus continued to press the issue despite being hushed by his defense attorney, Colleen O’Hara.
“Mr. Elkus, you’ve got to be quiet,” Donahue said. “This is not a forum for you to speak about whatever you want to talk about.”
Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Murphy told jurors at the onset of the roughly three-week trial that Elkus was seething over a 21-yearold unsuccessful surgery when he drove 55 miles to Gilbert’s office and shot him Jan. 28, 2013.
In 1992, Gilbert was a young medical resident at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Long Beach. He worked with a team of doctors to diagnose Elkus with a urethral stricture — a narrowing of the urethra — after he complained of frequent urination, Murphy said.
Two other doctors at the VA performed the surgery — without Gilbert — to widen Elkus’ urethra, but Elkus continued to hold a grudge against Gilbert.
Elkus blamed what he believed was a botched operation for his incontinence, erectile dysfunction, diminished sex drive and, ultimately, the loss of his longtime girlfriend.
For decades, he bent the ear of doctors, neighbors and friends about the procedure. He showed up to urologists’ offices with a stack of medical records and a tape recording of his thengirlfriend discussing his sexual problems.
“He figures he has nothing left to lose,” Murphy said during closing statements Thursday. “He puts his affairs in order and he goes to settle that score.”
O’Hara argued during the trial that her client was not in a coherent state of mind the day of the shooting.
Elkus, she said, has dementia and severe brain damage that affects his inhibitions and impulse control. She said Elkus did not intend to harm the doctor when he made an appointment with him, but that an anti-depressant he had begun taking weakened his inhibitions and led to the deadly shooting.
“Mr. Elkus is not playing with a full deck,” she told jurors during closing statements last week.
But Murphy’s version of events paints Elkus as clearheaded and diligent in his plan to harm Gilbert.
Murphy alleges that in 2010, after years of stewing, Elkus began making plans for revenge.
He created a living trust for his sister to assume control of all of his assets and property in the event of his death or incarceration, and printed out MapQuest directions to Gilbert’s office on Superior Avenue. In December 2012, he bought a .45-caliber handgun, and practiced shooting about 150 rounds with it, Murphy said.
On Jan. 22, 2013, Elkus drove to Gilbert’s office at Orange Coast Urology and made an appointment under a fake name, “Allen Gold,” to return days later.
Murphy alleges that Elkus began putting his affairs in order the week leading to the fatal shooting. He left copies of his trust, instructions for his rental properties and a reminder to pay the gardener on a cabinet inside his house. He packed a bag with his medication, loaded his gun and drove to Newport Beach.
“He knows he’s not coming home after committing this murder,” Murphy said.
Around 2 p.m. Jan. 28, 2013, Elkus checked in at Gilbert’s office and was led to an examination room. When Gilbert entered the room, he was shot 10 times in the chest, neck and side. All but one bullet went through his body, leaving holes in the wall of the exam room.
Elkus opened the door holding a handgun and told a nurse, “I’m insane, call the police,” Murphy said.
Gilbert, who lived in Huntington Harbour, died on the floor in the hallway outside the exam room, despite his colleagues’ attempt to save him.
A photograph of Gilbert’s body was displayed on an overhead projector during Murphy’s closing statements last week. Family members comforted Gilbert’s widow, who cast her gaze toward the floor.
“Ron Gilbert was a human being and he gets his day in court too,” Murphy told jurors.