Man in hacking death going to mental hospital

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors in the case of a mentally ill patient accused of hacking a psychotherapist to death with a meat cleaver decided Tuesday not to challenge a psychiatrist's finding that the killer is not mentally fit to stand trial.

David Tarloff, 40, will be turned over to the state and sent to a mental institution, where he will be held indefinitely, said Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon. Tarloff had faced the prospect of life in a maximum-security prison.

Tarloff, who told police he had been in mental institutions at least 20 times, was charged with first- and second-degree murder in the Feb. 12 death of Kathryn Faughey, 56, in her Upper East Side office.