The man who allegedly stabbed people during a Hanukkah home invasion was found unfit to stand trial by a judge, according to ABC News.
A judged ordered that Grafton Thomas receive up to four months of treatment at a mental health facility to see whether he "will attain the capacity to permit criminal proceedings to go forward against him," a court order issued on Monday read.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is required to deliver a report on Thomas' condition during the first 30 days, the order read.
Michael Sussman, who is representing Grafton, claimed his client suffers "severe psychiatric issues" for which he has been hospitalized in the past, according to ABC News.
"I have stated from the very outset that, based upon my investigation, this was not an act of domestic terrorism," Sussman wrote to ABC News in a statement. "While others were making that claim and inflaming the public, I stated that Mr. Thomas had a long well-documented history of mental illness and that, tragically, this motivated his conduct in late December."
Thomas, 37, allegedly pushed his way into Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg's home in Monsey, New York during a Hanukkah celebration on Dec. 28, 2019. Once inside, he attacked people at the event with a machete, according to police. He was arrested soon after the attack.
"The medical reports received by the courts being to explicate this history ... his actions on the night in question all bespeak to his very serious mental illness," Sussman said. "In this situation, long-term treatment and hospitalization appear to be appropriate."
Federal and state prosecutors said Thomas attacked the people at the celebration because they were Jewish. Reports said Thomas allegedly had written anti-Semitic comments in a journal and searched online for hatred of Jews by Adolf Hitler, the prosecutors contend.
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