Title: Maryland Teen admits to sword death

Source: Associated Press, 2/2/02

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LEESBURG, Va. - A teenager with a history of mental illness confessed to the sword slaying of a prominent scientist, saying fantasy creatures gave him permission to kill the man in order to protect a friend.

In a statement to police made public on Friday, Kyle Hulbert, 18, of Millersville, Md., said he believed biophysicist Robert M. Schwartz, 57, was trying to kill his own daughter - Hulbert's friend - by lacing lemons with sulfuric acid and poisoning her food. 

Hulbert, who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic and treated in psychiatric hospitals, said he was angered by 19-year-old Clara Jane Schwartz's accounts of her father's abuse.

The pair had been friends since meeting in October at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

''I have always told Clara that I would protect her,'' Hulbert wrote.

He said the final straw came after Clara Schwartz allegedly claimed her father wanted to make ''sure she did not come back'' from a family trip, according to Hulbert's Dec. 12 statement.

''That was all I could take,'' he wrote.

The teenager said vampires and creatures named Ordog, Sabba, and Nicodemus then gave him permission for the Dec. 8, 2001, slaying to protect his friend.

Along with Hulbert, Clara Schwartz, Michael Pfohl, 21, and Katherine Inglis, 19, are awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges. The four have told police they shared a devotion to fantasy realms dominated by vampires and witchcraft.

Lawyers for the defendants declined to comment.