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Former Morgan State Student Accused Of Cannibalism Faces Attempted Murder Charges In Baseball Bat Attack

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Morgan State student accused of cannibalizing a family friend is back in court, this time for separate attempted murder charges.

Mike Hellgren was there as Alexander Kinyua appeared in court.

This attack happened on campus. It was extraordinarily emotional in court Wednesday. The victim wept and said he didn't feel justice was served because he fears his attacker could get out of a mental hospital before he gets the proper help but he says he forgave him.

Alexander Kinyua, a 22-year-old former Morgan State student, pleaded guilty to trying to kill a fellow student, Joshua Ceasar, in a campus dorm, beating him with a bat wrapped in barbed wire. That attack happened just a week before police say Kinyua murdered and ate the organs of a family friend.

The judge said doctors diagnosed Kinyua as a paranoid schizophrenic who was living in what she called a delusional word, hearing voices that told him to kill.

"Seeing him, it hurt my heart," said Ceasar.

The judge found because of Kinyua's mental problems, he was not criminally responsible. He won't serve jail time but will be committed to the State Department of Health until doctors feel he isn't a danger to the community anymore.

The judge read from a mental health report that said Kinyua would bring dead animals into his parents' home, believing that they had supernatural powers. He would talk about demons, he believed he was poisoned and his parents were impostors.

"Obviously Mr. Kinyua has mental health problems. He's mentally ill and the court did the right thing here," said Kinyua's lawyer, Harun Shabazz.

There are concerns over whether warning signs were missed, whether he should have been treated earlier, before either attack. A Morgan instructor called him "Virginia Tech waiting to happen." Yet after beating Ceasar, he was released from jail.

"America right now is mourning the death of the innocent children lost their lives at school. Why should children and students feel unsafe to go to school?" said Ceasar.

Kinyua is on two different kinds of antipsychotic medicine. He did address the court, saying he doesn't believe he can forgive himself for what happened.

Kinyua still faces a trial in the cannibalism murder.

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