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Posted by R. Scott Moxley in Citizen of the Week!, Crime & Sex, Moxley

July 2, 2008 12:00 PM

Permalink | Comments (9)

Say, for the sake of argument, that you’re a burglar. Would you strip naked once you’ve entered an occupied residence?

That’s what I thought.

But 18-year-old Arthur David Macias Jr. thought losing his clothing was a wise move—and he was neither drunk nor high. No stimulants were necessary because, he later noted to a police detective, he was merely following instructions. Both God and the Antichrist had compelled his bizarre burglary, he said.

Macias’ tale begins on April 10, 2005, when he claims supernatural messages entered his brain while he was walking by a Brea home at 3 a.m. and saw in the driveway a Ford Excursion he’d stolen and crashed a year earlier. After checking to see if the key had been left in the ignition, he says, he decided to go to the back yard, put a toy wagon under the laundry-room window, climb into the house, strip in a bathroom, and then search each room for wallets, purses and loose change. Six people were asleep in various rooms.

Suspicious of his story? Yeah, police were, too.

The first victim, Eric Wall, was sleeping in bed next to his wife. Two of his children, who’d fallen asleep while watching a rented movie, were on the floor beside his bed. Two other kids, an infant girl and a 15-year-old son, slept in two other rooms.

Wall’s instincts drove him from his slumber to open his eyes. He saw a naked man standing over him. The intruder held a 10-inch butcher's knife with both hands over his head, as if ready to plunge the blade into Wall, a plumber.

“I thought I was going to die. . . . I reached up and grabbed him and rolled him onto the bed,” he told cops. “We struggled. I yelled to my wife, ‘Turn on the lights!’ and I grabbed the blade and pinned him against the wall.”

The eldest son grabbed a baseball bat from a closet, tossed it to his dad and grabbed a second one for himself. Mom Stacy Wall screamed for them to beat the knife-yielding man with the bats. But there was no need. Macias quickly dropped the knife and explained, “God sent me to do this.”

Within five minutes, Brea police entered the residence and found a still-nude 5-foot-7 man of Navajo Indian descent surrounded by the horrified family. Macias told the officers, “The Antichrist sent me here” and, “Everybody should repent for their sins.” The police handcuffed him and took him away.

Macias’ simple burglary story then turned more wacko. He told a detective that one of the messages he heard before entering the house involved lyrics to a song that played over and over in his mind: “Kill you in your sleep . . . They can’t stop me.” He told a psychologist he believed the Devil had telepathically sent him the “Thug Luv” tune by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

Okay. So what about the stripping? A prosecutor in the Orange County district attorney’s office solved that mystery for Macias’ jury.

“He thought to himself that if he killed the people in the bedroom, he would have blood all over his clothes, so he took his clothes off,” said prosecutor George Turner. “His plan was to kill them all, shower, dress and leave. . . . He wanted to be a mass murderer.”

The most likely motive? A court had ordered Macias, who attended the same high school as the Walls’ older children, to pay $13,000 in restitution for stealing and wrecking the family’s SUV. He’d only paid $200 of the debt.

According to Turner, “He’s a sociopath.”

Macias disagreed, telling a wary Superior Court Judge William L. Evans, “I’m not so bad.” Joe Shirley, president of the Navajo Nation, sought leniency by telling officials that Macias' mother had died when he was 8 years old.

For 15 minutes of compliance with satanic orders, Macias received two consecutive life sentences, plus four additional years in prison for the four attempted murders, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary convictions.

(Wednesdays at OCWeekly.com, discover the depths of human depravity in Orange County, California.)

Click HERE for previous Citizen of the Week winners.

— R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Comments (9)

Nancy says:
July 2, 2008 13:10

It seems there is an endless supply of freaks in Orange County. Frightening!

Jaime says:
July 2, 2008 13:26

I still think you should do a book...

rebecca says:
July 3, 2008 21:11

I don't know, Scott; he sounds pretty classically schizophrenic to me, and that's not something I can blame a person for ...

Carol D. says:
July 3, 2008 21:27

Uh, I'd say he was a pretty darn smart schizo then because he PLANNED to keep his clothes blood free.

American in Greece says:
July 3, 2008 22:40

Again, another senseless crime. Thank God the father had the presence of mind to react quickly. How many of us do that when we first wake up?

What is it about America that creates such people? Here in Greece, there are the occasional home break-ins, but in every case, they rob, and leave. I've never heard of people just breaking in for motives other than robbery.

Is it our American food, water etc..? What creates these wackos that SOME other countries just don't seem to have.

One more reason for living in Greece and Europe!!! Again, come to Greece, enjoy the beautiful islands, sea, ouzo and return to the USA in one piece!

KC says:
July 4, 2008 16:48

This has been a nightmare of mine for years.

J.W. Green says:
July 5, 2008 00:49

"Penned" him against the wall?
Of Navajo Indian "decent"?

Your copy editor's on line one, Moxley. He says to tell you he misses you.

Chris Turner says:
July 7, 2008 08:30

Very interesting. It's hard to believe this guy wasn't on mind altering drugs. Did the police test him for that?

Charlene Dryer says:
July 13, 2008 07:50

American in Greece says, "What creates these wackos that SOME other countries just don't seem to have." (sic).

Could it be repressed sexuality and corrupt
NAZI type government? For example see how OC Sheriffs shut down the Mooning of the Amtrak for no better reason than that there were too many people there having fun.

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