A man who hoarded trash and animals inside his California home was convicted Thursday for the shooting death of an animal control officer in 2012, the Sacramento Bee reported.
It took five hours for the Sacramento County jury to find Joseph Francis Corey guilty of first-degree murder for killing Roy Marcum, whom he shot through the front door of his home in Galt thinking it was a police officer coming to evict him.
"He got what he deserved," Charlotte Marcum, the victim's mother, told the Sacramento Bee while crying.
Defense attorney Jennifer Mouzis argued that Corey, 67, has severe anxiety that causes him to collect piles of rubbish. He also had a collection of animals that were forced to live among the waste, including eight dogs and two cats, the newspaper reported. That mental defect means Corey could not have been capable of planning a murder, Mouzis argued.
"He does suffer from hoarding disorder," psychologist Robin Zasio, who has appeared on the TV show "Hoarders," said during her testimony for the defense.
If a hoarder is threatened with losing their belongings, especially one who may see their pets as children, they can turn to sudden violent behavior.
"It's chemically driven," Zasio said according to the newspaper. "You will see very extreme anxiety and fear because of the chemicals going through their brain."
The hoarder's downfall began when he was evicted after not making a house payment in three years. He was officially evicted on Nov. 27, 2012 and the bank sent two representatives to lock his house on First Street, the Lodi News-Sentinel reported.
Upon discovering the animals, one of the representatives told Corey he would have to find them a home or they would be removed by Sacramento County Animal Control.
The next day, animal control officer Marcum, 45, arrived to remove the animals, according to the Lodi News-Sentinel. But before he made it through the door he was shot and killed by Corey- who had snuck back into the house with a hunting rifle and waited at the top of the stairs, prosecutors said.
The jury agreed that Corey was lying in wait and that he shot an officer who was performing his duties.
Corey is expected to receive life in prison at his Dec. 12 sentencing.
