A Marin County jury yesterday found Tonantzyn Oris Beltran not guilty by reason of insanity in the January 2024 killing of her mother, Olivia Beltran, and a judge ordered her to a locked psychiatric facility instead of state prison.
Verdict and courtroom order
The decision came after four weeks of testimony and two days of deliberations, according to the Marin Independent Journal. Judge Geoffrey Howard ordered that Beltran be committed to a psychiatric facility, where she will be held for treatment under court supervision rather than transferred to prison.
The killing and the livestream
The stabbing happened on Jan. 8, 2024, inside an apartment in Terra Linda. Police and witnesses say Beltran recorded the attack and streamed it on Facebook Live before Meta took the video down, according to the Los Angeles Times. Paramedics rushed Olivia Beltran to a hospital, where she later died.
What jurors heard
In court, prosecutors painted the stabbing as a planned killing. They pointed to therapy records, text messages, and online searches that they said showed motive and intent, and jurors were shown video of the assault, the Marin Independent Journal reported.
The defense countered with a portrait of long-term and serious mental illness. Jurors heard about past psychotic episodes, psychiatric hospitalizations, suicide attempts, and reports of auditory hallucinations. A defense expert testified that Beltran lived with delusions and heard voices. Prosecution experts, by contrast, emphasized antisocial personality traits, while the defense argued that schizoaffective disorder and PTSD best explained her condition. Those competing medical narratives sat at the center of the jury’s deliberations on insanity.
Family calls for treatment
From the outset of the case, some of Beltran’s relatives and restorative-justice advocates urged prosecutors to focus on treatment rather than punishment. They argued that she was in the grip of a severe mental health crisis and that her mother had wanted her to receive care, according to KQED. Supporters rallied outside the Marin County courthouse during pretrial hearings, pressing for hospitalization rather than a traditional prison sentence.
How California handles insanity acquittees
A verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity does not mean someone walks out of court. Under California law, the court typically commits a person found legally insane to the Department of State Hospitals or another approved treatment facility. Penal Code §1026 requires an evaluation by the community program director and directs the court to either order inpatient hospitalization or approve closely supervised outpatient status.
The California Department of State Hospitals notes that NGRI patients are treated within state hospitals and, when clinicians deem it appropriate, may later transition into supervised community programs, such as CONREP, which monitors medical care, housing, and public safety conditions…