Palm Desert Snow Bird On Trial For Assaulting Neighbor

A Palm Desert man testified today that his neighbor entered his garage and threatened to kill him when he returned from playing golf at their housing community’s course.

“The voice said, `You son of a (expletive), I’m going to kill you”’ Paul Tritschler testified at the trial of his neighbor, Barry Keith Hancock. Hancock, 70, is charged with attempted murder, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon causing injury to a person over 70 and making criminal threats for allegedly attacking Tritschler with a metal bar on Dec. 3, 2008.

Tritschler, a 76-year-old Minnesota resident who spends part of the year in Palm Desert, said he was plugging in his golf cart to recharge it in the garage near his condo in the 39400 block of Narcissus Way when he heard Hancock threaten him.

“I leaned back against the dashboard and said, `Barry, Barry, you don’t have to do this,”’ Tritschler said.

He said he grabbed an unknown object from Hancock’s hand and began to struggle with him. He felt something metal hit his head.

“I thought, if I don’t do something he’s going to club me,” Tritschler said.

He grabbed a bottle of sand and hit Hancock, and they kept struggling. Tritschler was able to pin him to the ground until neighbors called security and sheriff’s deputies arrived

“He said, `You bag of (expletive), I’m going to kill you’ and he just kept repeating it,” Tritschler said.

Deputy District Attorney Brad Braaten said in his opening statement that the gash in Tritschler’s head needed eight stitches. He said Hancock had a revolver and a Taser when he confronted Tritschler.

Braaten said authorities found a knife, paper towels, plastic sheeting and a shovel in Hancock’s vehicle, duct tape, rope and a Taser box in his garage and a handgun in his house.

“I’m going to ask you very specifically to hold him accountable for all the planning and preparation he took to end (Tritschler’s) life,” Braaten told the jury.

Hancock thought his neighbor was “bombarding his residence with noise machines and microwaves,” the prosecution alleged in court documents.

Hancock’s attorney, Ryan Markson, said in his opening statement that Hancock “intended to kill no one.”

“He only wanted answers from his neighbor,” he said.

Markson said his client had an ongoing belief that Tritschler “was radiating his body with some kind of electromagnetic energy through a wall, with some kind of machine.”

Markson said the gun Hancock took to Tritschler’s garage was taped so it couldn’t fire.

“The evidence shows he did not go near enough to constitute the crime of attempted murder,” Markson said.

Hancock has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Should he be found guilty of any of the charges at trial, a sanity phase would follow in which a jury would be tasked with determining whether he was sane or insane at the time of the crime, Braaten has said.

The defendant’s insanity plea was entered last June, after Riverside County Superior Court Judge William S. Lebov ruled that Hancock was mentally competent to stand trial.

A judge last year ordered county mental health staff to ensure Hancock was taking psychiatric medication while jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.