Man Acquitted For Thinking San Francisco Apartment He Broke Into Was A Spaceship
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A man claims he broke into a San Francisco apartment because he thought it was a spaceship -- and it worked in his defense.
After getting into a scuffle with the people who lived at the Mission District apartment, he was acquitted of robbery and other felony charges.
According to his defense team, 41-year-old Santino Aviles believed the earth's destruction was imminent, so he spotted the apartment building he thought looked like a spaceship.
He gained access to the roof by a building resident who let him inside after ringing the buzzer. He then climbed onto the fire escape and into an apartment through an open window.
After a short nap on the couch, he threw the resident's inflatable exercise ball onto the fire escape, "planning to float with it through the galaxy," he testified.
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The resident and his girlfriend woke up find Aviles in the apartment and went after him with a baseball bat before calling 911. The resident injured his toe in the scuffle while Aviles suffered a black eye and other bruises.
In a videotaped interrogation following his arrest, Aviles can be seen muttering about spaceships and telling police the world was going to explode.
His attorneys say he was suffering from a meth-fueled psychosis. He was only convicted of misdemeanor battery and assault.