Man responsible for 2009 murder in Santa Maria to be released after completing mental health programs
and last updated 2020-12-17 00:16:56-05
A Santa Maria man who was found to be legally insane when he killed a stranger with a hatchet 11 years ago is being released into the community after a judge ruled that he is no longer a danger to others.
On August 1, 2009, 69-year-old Frederick Holgate was out for an early morning walk when Nicholas Bendle, who was 20 at the time, attacked him.
A court found that Bendle had suffered a psychotic break due to the rapid onset of previously undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.
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.