UPDATE: Trial Postponed For LE Man Charged With Stabbing Parents

9/1 UPDATE: With his attorney tied up on another case, trial was postponed today for a Lake Elsinore man accused of stabbing his parents when they insisted he pay them something for living on their property.

Clinton Charles Blake, 28, could face more than 25 years in prison if convicted of two counts of attempted murder, as well as weapons and great bodily injury allegations, in the Dec. 8, 2006, attack on John and Cynthia Blake.

The defendant has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Blake's attorney, Sara Jewett, asked Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer to delay proceedings for eight weeks while she completes a separate trial and further researches her client's case, to which she was assigned in mid-July.

Freer rescheduled Blake's trial for Oct. 28.

Blake remains behind bars in lieu of $1 million bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.

In June, Judge Albert Wojcik was just starting jury selection when Blake's public defender declared a conflict that prevented him from continuing to act as the defendant's legal representative, resulting in Jewett's appointment.

According to the District Attorney's Office, the defendant had been living in a single-wide trailer behind his parents' Hyatt Avenue home in the months preceding the alleged attack. When they demanded that he start paying rent and his share of the utility bills -- or have his electricity turned off -- he allegedly flew into a rage and stabbed his mother and father with a knife.

John Blake suffered wounds to his face, head and back, while his wife's neck was slashed and her arms cut while trying to fend off their son, according to sheriff's investigators.

The defendant fled when his older brother, who was also living at the location, threatened him with a sword, they said.

Sheriff's deputies located Blake a short time later, walking in the neighborhood. The bloody knife was found on the street.

According to Deputy District Attorney Jess Walsh, mental health exams conducted on Blake in 2007 determined the defendant was fit to stand trial. However, the question of whether he fully realized what he was doing when he allegedly knifed his parents will have to be answered in the sanity phase of his trial, which will follow the guilt phase, during which the same jury will decide whether he committed the alleged crimes, according to the prosecutor. --City News Service

9/1 ORIGINAL POST: Trial proceedings are expected to get under way today for a Lake Elsinore man accused of stabbing his parents when they insisted he pay them something for living on their property.

Clinton Charles Blake, 28, could face more than 20 years in prison if convicted of two counts of attempted murder, as well as weapons and great bodily injury allegations, in the Dec. 8, 2006, attack on John and Cynthia Blake. The defendant has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Albert Wojcik had just begun jury selection in the case in June when Blake's public defender declared a conflict that prevented him from continuing to act as the defendant's legal representative. Temecula attorney Sara Jewett has since been appointed as Blake's counsel.

The defendant remains held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.

According to the District Attorney's Office, the Lake Elsinore man had been living in a single-wide trailer behind his parents' Hyatt Avenue home in the months preceding the attack. When they demanded that he start paying rent and his share of the utility bills -- or have his electricity turned off -- he flew into a rage and stabbed his mother and father with a knife, prosecutors allege.

John Blake suffered wounds to his face, head and back, while his wife's neck was slashed and her arms cut while trying to fend off their son, according to sheriff's investigators. The defendant fled when his older brother, who was also living at the location, threatened him with a sword, they said.

Sheriff's deputies located Blake a short time later, walking in the neighborhood. The bloody knife was found on the street.

According to Deputy District Attorney Jess Walsh, mental health exams conducted on Blake in 2007 determined the defendant was fit to stand trial.

But the question of whether he fully realized what he was doing when he allegedly knifed his parents will have to be answered in the sanity phase of his trial, which will follow the guilt phase, during which the same jury will decide whether he committed the alleged crimes, according to the prosecutor. --City News Service