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Three psychiatrists took the stand Wednesday to convince a Los Angeles jury that the man convicted of executing a sheriff’s deputy in broad daylight was legally insane at the moment he pulled the trigger. The defense’s opening statements in the sanity phase of the trial—which began December 2, 2024—centered on the diagnosis of schizophrenia and a long history of mental health crises.
Defense attorney George Rosenstock told the downtown Los Angeles jury that Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar, now 32, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia since 2019 and had been hospitalized multiple times for paranoid delusions. “The issue is what was in his mind when he pulled the trigger,” Rosenstock said, emphasizing that the crime involved “one split second” of decision-making.
Salazar was convicted of first-degree murder on Monday, November 25, 2024, for the September 16, 2023, killing of Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer. The jury also found true special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, lying in wait, and firing from a vehicle. If found sane, Salazar faces life in prison without parole. If found insane, he will be committed to a state hospital instead.
Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian reserved his opening statement until the prosecution’s case, but the defense has already begun presenting evidence. Rosenstock argued that Salazar operated under a “delusional framework” in which he believed NASA and the Air Force were “controlling his mind” through satellites. He also suffered from auditory hallucinations, including hearing voices that told him he was being persecuted.
Rosenstock noted that Salazar had been on “anti-psychotic medication every day” since his arrest on September 18, 2023. The defense attorney told the panel that a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict “does not contradict your first verdict,” explaining that the guilt phase determined Salazar committed the act, but the sanity phase determines whether he understood the moral wrongness of his actions.
The prosecution, however, argued during the guilt phase that Salazar’s actions were “goal-directed” and “step-by-step.” Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake had told jurors that Salazar initially followed a sheriff’s sergeant, then made a U-turn to follow Clinkunbroomer, stalking “his prey” as the 30-year-old deputy pulled out of the Palmdale station. Blake pointed to evidence that Salazar had practiced shooting at paper targets, specifically aiming at the head.
In a rebuttal argument, Ayvazian revealed that Salazar told undercover operatives in jail—in a secretly recorded conversation—that he had wanted to kill a police officer for years. He described following officers, parking, waiting, and playing music to prepare himself. After the killing, Salazar attended a candlelight vigil at the station, which the prosecutor said showed he was “enjoying the anonymity of what he’s done.”
The defense countered that Salazar’s actions were driven by delusions, not rational planning. During the guilt phase, Rosenstock argued that “impulse is inconsistent with deliberation,” questioning the prosecution’s claim that Salazar could premeditate.
The case began when Clinkunbroomer, a multi-generation sheriff’s deputy who had become engaged four days earlier, was shot in the back of the head while sitting in his marked patrol SUV near the Palmdale station. He was rushed to Antelope Valley Medical Center but died that night.
Investigators used surveillance footage to identify a Toyota Corolla and asked the public for help. A motorist came forward with a photo of the license plate of a vehicle whose driver had aggressively confronted him about seven minutes before the shooting. The plate led to Salazar’s home, where a .22-caliber revolver was found. Evidence presented at a June 2024 hearing showed that Salazar admitted his involvement two days after the killing, telling detectives he felt bad and “cried for the officer.” When asked why he shot the deputy, Salazar said it “started a long time ago before COVID” and that he “began to hear voices in his head.”
The slain deputy was honored in January 2024 with the renaming of the Castaic Sports Complex to the Ryan M. Clinkunbroomer Castaic Sports Complex.
Expert Insight on California’s Insanity Defense
California law uses the M’Naghten rule: a defendant is insane if, at the time of the crime, they did not know the nature of the act or did not know it was wrong. The defense must prove insanity by a preponderance of the evidence. According to legal expert Dr. James L. Knoll, a forensic psychiatrist at SUNY Upstate Medical University, “Schizophrenia with command hallucinations can severely impair a person’s ability to distinguish right from wrong. But the jury will scrutinize whether the delusions directly caused the act.” This case mirrors high-profile insanity defenses, such as the 2019 trial of a man who killed a Colorado deputy and was found insane.
The sanity phase is expected to continue for several weeks. If the jury finds Salazar insane, he will be confined to a state mental hospital, potentially for life, with periodic reviews.
