Whether he was speaking to psychiatrists, police officers or prosecutors, Karl Sneider stuck to his story no matter how absurd it sounded, witnesses testified at his four-day trial.
He was in the garden on Jan. 27, 2003. God told him he was Jesus Christ. His mother was Satan. He killed Satan, cut off her head and placed it on the front porch of their Palatine home for all to see good triumph over evil.
He wiped himself clean with his Bible's pages.
God ordered him to drive a neighbor's car that was running in the street. He crashed it and ran. As police arrested him, he cried out that he was the "son of God."
On Tuesday, the consistency of that testimony from both prosecution and defense witnesses led Cook County circuit court Judge John Scotillo to declare he had "no choice" but to find Sneider not guilty by reason of insanity of murdering his mother, 49-year-old Kathryn Sneider.
The verdict means that though Sneider committed the grisly acts, he didn't understand at the time they were wrong.
Four doctors testified that Sneider was either psychotic or schizophrenic, suffering from delusions and hallucinations.
Sneider could be placed in an inpatient psychiatric hospital for as many as 60 years, the length of the maximum prison sentence he could have received had he been found guilty. The law allows the judge to free Sneider before that, after hearing the advice of doctors from the Department of Human Services, but authorities agreed that is not likely.
Scotillo will determine what type of care Sneider needs at his next court date, Sept. 23. Sneider will remain in Cook County jail until then.
A dozen of Karl and Kathryn Sneider's family members attended parts of the trial, which included gruesome details about the decapitation.
Emotions were high as tearful family members streamed into the courthouse's hallway.
"He's going to come and live with you," one of Kathryn Sneider's relatives said to Werner Sneider, Kathryn's ex-husband and Karl's father.
"He's very sick -- what's wrong with you?" Werner Sneider replied before leaving the courthouse.
Bill Larson, Kathryn Sneider's brother and Karl Sneider's uncle, said he believes Karl Sneider was acting out in violence -- not mental illness -- against his mother. Sneider has a history of heroin addiction, burglary and domestic violence against a girlfriend.
Larson questioned why prosecutors didn't seek a doctor's opinion that Sneider was sane at the time of the attack, saying the state "didn't fight hard for this case."
The Cook County state's attorney's office had two doctors with the county's forensic clinical institute examine Sneider, said Tom Stanton, spokesman for Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine. Both found him insane.
When two defense doctors came to the same conclusion, prosecutors chose not to seek another opinion, Stanton said.
Sneider, in court under heavy medication, showed no reaction to the verdict. Before each day of the trial, Sneider's attorneys told Scotillo Sneider had taken his medication.
"We feel bad for the whole family -- for the relatives and Karl," said Barry Lloyd, an assistant public defender who represented Sneider with Joseph Gump. "Karl suffered as much as anyone."
Lloyd did not know if Sneider still believes he is Jesus Christ.
Upset at the possibility Sneider could one day be released from a state hospital, Sandy Larson, Kathryn Sneider's sister-in-law, said "everybody should be afraid" of her nephew.
"If he gets out, would you want him living next to you?" she asked.