SANTA CRUZ – A 55-year-old former psychiatric patient at the state hospital faces a 15-year prison sentence as part of a plea deal confirmed Wednesday.
After lengthy mental health treatment, Steve Wooding was found competent in August to face charges of attempted murder in 2018. Ahead of a potential trial, Wooding pleaded no contest to attempted murder, two counts of assault with great bodily harm and possession of a knife on a college campus before a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge Denine Guy.
According to details of the case presented at this week’s hearing, Wooding walked up unprovoked to a 19-year-old Cabrillo College student sitting in a busy cafeteria and stabbed her in the back on Oct. 31, 2018. The student, pursued by Wooding, fled the cafeteria to a grassy area outside before the students and at least one teacher helped pin Wooding to the ground, according to Sentinel reports at the time. Student witnesses who shared their perspectives were not sure if the incident that unfolded was a Halloween prank or a school shooting.
Before the attack, Wooding sent the Sentinel more than 100 emails and nearly 50 voicemails with nonspecific threats about his plans to commit a crime, communications that were turned over to authorities at the time.
Wooding’s violent history with Cabrillo College dates back to 1994, when he clubbed a Cabrillo psychology instructor in the face with a wooden handle in his classroom. Wooding, who last attended Cabrillo as a student in 1992 and was 25 years old at the time, sprayed a corrosive liquid in the faces of students who tried to restrain him and clubbed another in the head, according to Sentinel reports.
Wooding’s criminal proceedings in that case were suspended when he was found incompetent to stand trial and remanded to the Department of State Hospitals until 1999.
Likewise, in February 2019, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Paul Burdick found Wooding mentally incompetent to stand trial for the 2018 stabbing and ordered him back to state hospitals.
Wooding is scheduled for sentencing at 09.00 on October 9.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article should have stated that Wooding’s sentencing is still pending.
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