Man who killed his mom, cut out her heart, found insane by jury

OAKLAND » A jury found that a Fremont man who admitted to brutally killing his own mother by hitting her over the head, shooting and stabbing her and then ripping out her heart from her body was insane at the time of the crimes.

Omar Malik Pettigen, 35, was found guilty last month of killing of his mother, Nailah Pettigen, a 64-year- old retired special education teacher who had taught at American High School in Fremont. She was found dead in her Fremont home on Sept. 29, 2015.

Omar Pettigen admitted on the stand during his trial to the gruesome killing, even describing her disembowelment. Since he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, the case also had a sanity phase, in which his defense presents evidence about his mental state, such as his medical record and examinations conducted by psychiatrists.

The same jury that found him guilty during the guilt phase of the trial last month, deliberated for about four days before returning a verdict on Monday. He can face time in a state mental hospital instead of serving prison time for his sentence.

Omar Pettigen testified that he remembered taking a shower at his mother’s Fremont home, then the voices telling him he needed to go kill his mother. He then took a hammer and an ax from the wall and accused his mother of being the witch of Josephine Baker, who was a deceased Afrian American entertainer famous in Paris and active in the French Resistance in World War II.

He said he believed he needed to kill his mother before she killed him.

He went into detail about how he first hit her over the head with the hatchet, then pulled her off the bed onto the floor on her stomach, while she was possibly still breathing and shot her five times in her back “to make sure she was dead.”

“I thought she was going to come back from life,” he said, deadpan, showing no emotion during his July testimony.

He then took two knives from the kitchen, stabbed her multiple times in the chest, and slit her open from her throat to her stomach. He then pulled out her heart and held it in his hand before putting it back into her body.

After the murder, he said he took another shower and masturbated. Then he went to check in at the nearby Extended Stay Hotel in Fremont. The next day, the voices told him to go ask a woman out on a date at the Bank of America, he said. He took BART to Hayward where he got food and a beer and then to San Francisco where he checked into the Omni Hotel.

At a restaurant in San Francisco, he gave his server a Band- Aid box filled with $1,300 in cash. According to court documents, he told her, “I think you deserve this. ... Don’t worry, it’s not Band-Aids.”

The hearing of the voices was not mentioned in the first police interviews. According to court documents, he initially told police he and his mother got into an argument, and it was self- defense because she had pulled a gun on him. It wasn’t until he spoke with a doctor after his mental competency was questioned that he mentioned the voices.

Pettigen now await s another court hearing in September, for a receipt of another doctor’s report. Judge Allan Hymer will ultimately determine if Pettigen will be placed in a mental hospital in sentencing.