A teen has been acquitted by reason of mental illness in an attack that left his grandmother dead and mother and sister with serious injuries last year in the family’s Roseville home.

Ramsey County District Judge JaPaul Harris found 18-year-old Matthew Francis Hill not guilty due to his mental illness, writing in an order last week the “weight of the evidence, closest in time to the offense, suggests (Hill) was suffering from a psychosis or other symptoms that would render him incapable of knowing right from wrong.”

In the first phase of the bench trial, Harris found in September that Hill was guilty of beating his 88-year-old grandmother, Patricia Maslow, with a baseball bat and fatally stabbing her, then striking his mother, 56-year-old Mary Hill, and 24-year-old sister, Anna Hill, with the bat.

Prosecutors by juvenile petition had charged Hill, who was 17 at the time, with second-degree intentional murder and first- and second-degree assault in the Oct. 25, 2022, attack in the 1100 block of Ryan Avenue. In August, Hill was certified to stand accused in adult court, and agreed to a bench trial based on stipulated facts and evidence.

Two doctors who examined Hill this year found that he was suffering from symptoms of schizophrenia at the time of the offense, Harris wrote in Wednesday’s ruling. In addition, “this record is full of information that demonstrates that prior to, during and shortly after the offense, (Hill’s) behavior was highly unusual,” Harris wrote, adding Hill likely began experiencing auditory hallucinations in the weeks before.

Harris ordered that Hill be held in a state hospital or another facility pending completion of a civil commitment process.

‘Gone crazy’

According to the criminal complaint, Bridget Hill, Hill’s sister, called 911 just before 10:30 a.m. and said her brother Matthew “went crazy” and attacked family members with a baseball bat and fled the home.

When officers arrived at the home, off Lexington Avenue and near County Road B, they saw blood on the outside of the front door.

Maslow was unresponsive and covered in blood in a hospital bed in a rear bedroom. A multitool with the knife blade open was found lying on her chest. Medics arrived on scene and pronounced her dead.

Hill’s mother had fractures to her face, skull, jaw, arm and hand. She had deep cuts to her face, and to scalp, as did Anna Hill.

Police issued an emergency area alert with a description of Matthew Hill.

Bridget Hill told police she lives at the home with her father, mother, two sisters, two brothers and grandmother. She said she awoke to screaming coming from downstairs, went there and saw her sister, Anna Hill, with a bloodied face struggling with Hill over a baseball bat.

She said her sister was screaming that Hill had “gone crazy” and to call 911, the complaint read. While on the phone with the 911 operator, she saw Hill drop the bat and run from the house. She described him as having a blank stare and not speaking to her or anyone else during the assault.

Mary Hill told police at the hospital that she heard her mother ring a bell she used when she needed help from a family member. When she went to her room, her son suddenly attacked her.

An investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension walks toward the scene of a homicide, where a person was killed and four others injured, at a residence in Roseville Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Anna Hill said she awoke to the sound of her mother and brother yelling in her grandmother’s living area. She went to see what was going on and saw Hill swinging a baseball bat.

She said Hill then hit her in the head with the bat multiple times. When she tried to wrestle the bat away from him, he dropped it. She grabbed the bat and struck him in the head. She yelled at him to leave, and he eventually did.

St. Paul officers spotted Hill walking on Stella Street toward Como Avenue just after 11 a.m. He was wearing pajama shorts, a T-shirt and white socks. His hands were red with dried blood, and he had blood splatter on his face, arms and clothes. He was taken into custody without incident. Officers noted Hill’s eyes were “wide open and glazed over, and he was seemingly unable to verbally communicate,” the complaint read.

Hill was transported to the Roseville Police Department for an interview, but he did not speak or move much and stared off in the distance, which a detective described as a “thousand-yard stare,” the complaint read. Hill said he felt like he was “going crazy,” which he described as “being someone else.”

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