Convicted murderer in Santa Maria to be released from court ordered mental health treatment keyt.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from keyt.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Janene Scully, Noozhawk North County Editor | @JaneneScully
December 16, 2020
| 3:37 p.m.
A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge has granted a petition for restoration of sanity and freedom from supervision for a man who partially decapitated a Santa Maria resident on an early morning walk in 2009.
Nicholas Bendle, 31, who now lives in Northern California, filed a petition a year ago seeking to be restored to sanity and released from the outpatient supervision in place since he left Patton State Hospital in 2014.
In August 2009, Bendle, armed with a hatchet, randomly attacked a pedestrian walking on South Miller Street near Stowell Road, killing Frederick Holgate, 69, of Santa Maria.