Disturbing Video Of San Mateo School Terror Suspect Surfaces
REDWOOD CITY (CBS SF) -- Prosecutors unveiled a haunting videotape Monday of the man accused of trying to blow up and kill people at a San Mateo high school in 2009.
Prosecutors allege that Youshock, now 18, went to the high school on the morning of Aug. 24, 2009, planning to kill his former teacher and terrorize students, and that he prepared by constructing pipe bombs in his room and recording deranged messages in the months before the attack.
KCBS' Bob Melrose Reports:
Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti presented a video that she said Youshock created and left on his bed along with a journal and a suicide note, all three of which investigators found when they searched his home.
The video shows a bearded Youshock wearing a military-style vest and speaking into the camera. His image was superimposed on a backdrop of the American flag, flames and the words "F--- USA" in bright yellow.
"Feel what it's like to be hated by everyone," he said. "Feel what it's like to be me."
Youshock also said on the tape, "You should not have done me wrong. It's your fault. You have filled me with rage."
Prosecutors allege that Youshock's attack was motivated by his self-imposed isolation and by the hatred he harbored for a Hillsdale High chemistry teacher who had flunked him, and that he gained inspiration from school massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School.
Guidotti read a journal entry from April 2009 in which Youshock wrote about naming his chainsaw after the 1999 massacre in Colorado.
"I named her Collie. It's short for Columbine ... I love Collie."
Giudotti said that Youshock lied to his mother and told her he was constructing a rocket in order to convince her to buy ingredients to make explosives online, including sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate.
Youshock attached 10 of the homemade bombs to a tactical jacket and wore it on the morning he went to the Hillsdale High campus, carrying his chainsaw in a guitar case and wearing a facemask to protect himself from blood spatters, Guidotti said.
Youshock tried and failed to start the chainsaw outside his chemistry teacher's classroom, alerting a security guard and other teachers to the attack.
Youshock was captured by school employees and police before anyone was hurt.
Youshock has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Defense attorney Jonathan McDougall said during opening statements Monday that his client suffers from schizophrenia and that the disorder prevented the disgruntled former student from being able to discern fantasy from reality.
The defense maintained in opening statements Monday morning that Youshock has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, which McDougall said causes Youshock to hallucinate and hear voices and prevents him from being able to tell the difference between legitimate situations and those invented by his paranoia.
McDougall quoted an e-mail sent by the principal of Hillsdale High to Youshock's mother in which he described her son as "increasingly sullen" and "one of the most withdrawn and emotionless students" he had ever known.
The defense said that in the months leading up to the attack, Youshock refused to eat anything but cheeseburgers he cooked for himself, that he took two-hour showers and that he insisted all the lights be left on in the San Mateo apartment he shared with his mother and sister.
McDougall said his client suffers "from a mental disease he did not choose," and that because of the disease, Youshock can't form specific intent and premeditate, as the prosecution has alleged.
Former sophomore Logan Golden and teacher Michael McCall were among the first witnesses to testify Monday afternoon. in the San Mateo County Superior Court trial of Alexander Youshock.
McCall said he initially thought Youshock, then 17, might have been taking part in a school skit when he noticed the defendant in the school hallway with a huge knife in a scabbard on his belt, putting on a tactical jacket stuffed with "silver tubular things."
It wasn't until Youshock began trying to start a chainsaw that he realized something was wrong.
"I heard someone trying to start a chainsaw," McCall said. "I grew up in North Carolina near the mountains. I know what a chainsaw sounds like."
McCall testified that a security guard running through the hallway prompted Youshock to light the fuse of one of the bombs and prepare to throw it.
"I had 30 kids in the class," McCall said, pausing to catch his breath. "I knew it was going to blow."
McCall said the class was terrorized as he moved them away from the door toward the back wall of the classroom and that they screamed when they heard the bomb explode.
"It wasn't like a firecracker," McCall said. "It was like a bomb with a shockwave that hit you."
A school employee eventually moved up the hallway telling people in the classrooms to get out, and McCall led his students down the hall in the opposite direction from where Youshock had been and outside the building.
Golden, now a student at Peninsula High School in San Bruno, testified that he had stepped outside his chemistry lab to eat breakfast when he saw Youshock crouched over a chainsaw wearing a black vest.
"'What the f---, dude!'" Golden said he yelled to Youshock, who turned and looked at him but did not respond.
Golden said he went back into the classroom but saw Youshock light the wick of a bomb about one half-inch from the bottom and throw it at the female security guard.
"She jumped over it," Golden said. "It went under her."
The security guard was not injured.
Golden said he then barricaded the classroom door and tried to calm the other students, who were beginning to panic.
Both witnesses testified they heard a second explosion within minutes of the first.
Youshock, who wore a white collared shirt and sweater at Monday's proceedings, sat motionless throughout the testimony.
Youshock is charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of exploding a destructive device with the intent to commit murder, one count of possession of a destructive device in a public place, one count of use of explosives in an act of terrorism, and two counts of possession of a deadly weapon.
He could get life in prison if convicted of attempted murder charges. His trial is expected to take four to six weeks.
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