Man ruled insane in 2006 murder

Believing he was living as a character in the 1999 movie "The Matrix," a Des Plaines man was insane when he used his sport utility vehicle to kill his father, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Garritt Howard found Ravi Kumar, 29, not guilty by reason of insanity in the July 2006 murder of his father, Rajinder. The verdict came in a Skokie courtroom crowded with family members and friends.

Howard ordered Kumar to undergo an evaluation to determine his future health needs, saying a doctor who testified to Kumar's mental illness persuaded him he had been insane.

Kumar is expected to undergo long-term hospitalization, said Kumar's attorney, Gregory Vazquez.

Testimony Wednesday centered on Kumar's psychiatric history and the violence that erupted in the early hours of July 9, 2006.

Since 2001, Kumar had been treated for a mental disorder. Nishad Nadkarni, a court-appointed psychiatrist, said Kumar had the brain function of an 8- to 11-year-old. He also had a history of hallucinations, the doctor said. Every month, Kumar would get a shot of an anti-psychotic drug.

In April 2006, he punched his father, but Rajinder refused to testify against him.

In July 2006, Kumar climbed into his green Jeep Cherokee, accelerated to about 60 mph and slammed into the driver's side of his father's Toyota Corolla in the family's Des Plaines cul-de-sac.

His father died almost immediately. The impact was so great that prosecutors say paint chips from the SUV were found in 54-year-old Rajinder Kumar's neck.

Rajinder Kumar had attempted to flee the home after his son awoke from a "Matrix"-related dream and tried to choke him as he slept.

Ravi Kumar believed his father wanted to make him an agent of the Matrix, depicted in the movie as a simulated reality designed to pacify humans, according to testimony.

Lijy Kumar, 27, told the judge she had to pull her husband off her father-in-law as he choked him in bed about 1 a.m., hours after Ravi's mother had gone to work. Then, Ravi Kumar hugged his father to say, "Sorry, I love you," she said. The embrace quickly turned violent as he pinned his father to the wall, she said.

Trying to separate them, Lijy told her father-in-law to leave the home. But Ravi followed.

"He hunted him down in his car and killed him," prosecutor Victoria Klegman said.

Des Plaines police showed a video reconstruction of the crash. As it played on a laptop computer, Ravi Kumar, dressed in a beige jumpsuit, moved in his chair to see it.

Kumar family members declined to comment after the trial.