CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A man who stabbed his 54-year-old educator-mother to death in her Chula Vista home last year was legally insane at the time he committed the crime, a judge ruled Thursday.

South Bay Judge Raymond Edwards Jr., in finalizing his tentative insanity ruling, said 29-year-old Kaijamar "Kai" Carpenter suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and "could not distinguish between moral right and wrong" at the time of the Jan. 12, 2007, murder.

Carpenter will be examined by a doctor to determine if he has regained his mental competency. The defendant will be back in court Oct. 31 for the judge to review the doctor's findings.

Defense attorney Michael Popkins said Carpenter will almost certainly be found to be mentally incompetent and sent to a state mental hospital.

"That doesn't mean he's going to get away with anything," Popkins said outside court. "He will be treated at a mental hospital, most probably perhaps for the rest of his life."

Popkins said Carpenter had a long history of schizophrenia which manifested itself into many bizarre actions over the last 10 years.

Carpenter did not have a grasp for reality, believing that he was a member of the CIA, Popkins said. The defendant also believed he was a professional athlete and owner of various sports franchises, his attorney said.

Popkins said he really doesn't know what happened the night that Diane Carpenter was murdered.

"I believe that he (Carpenter) honestly believed that he was ordered by the CIA to kill a person that he didn't really believe was his mother, who was taking the money from the banks in the world and people were going to starve unless he did that," the attorney told reporters.

Carpenter's father, David, said everyone in the family has been trying to get his son help for at least 10 years.

He called the victim, who was an assistant principal at Eastlake High School, a "hero."

"It's a shame that someone had to die -- his mother had to die -- for us to get the mental help that he needs," the father said outside court. "All we can do is just pray that his rehabilitation stabilizes him to give him better quality of life, and that this never happens to another mother and son."

He said he hopes mental health officials will "broaden their boundaries" in taking care of the mentally ill.

"We begged them for years to put him in long-term care," David Carpenter said. "We did everything a family could do."

The defendant initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but changed his plea to guilty to second-degree murder.

According to testimony at an earlier hearing, Carpenter told Chula Vista police Detective John Pene that he killed his mother with a steak knife. The defendant told the detective his mother wanted to throw him out of the house that morning and was about to call the police when he stabbed her.

Carpenter said he left their Chula Vista home and caught a trolley. He was apprehended around noon at El Cajon Boulevard and 51st Street in City Heights.