A man who stabbed his housemate in Carlsbad last year after a dispute over loud music pleaded guilty on Thursday to second-degree murder.
David Diaz, 33, is expected to be sentenced to 16 years to life in state prison on Jan. 28. Diaz withdrew his insanity plea on Thursday and pleaded guilty to murdering 23- year-old Asher Freeman on Aug. 7, 2014.
Freeman, who rented a room from Diaz’s family, was stabbed several times in the head and neck.
A neighbor testified last year that she heard a man’s voice — not Diaz — demanding that the volume be turned down on music playing in the backyard. Later that evening, the neighbor said she saw Diaz dancing around a fire in a bucket and making goat noises.
Defense attorney Matt Roberts told a judge at an earlier hearing that Diaz was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 18 years old.
Diaz — who called 911 after he stabbed Freeman — initially told police that the victim had been shot by two men in a drug deal gone bad. The defendant told officers that one of the intruders swung a knife at him before fleeing.
— City News Service
