Judge Halts Case Against Suspect in Actor's Fatal Stabbing

On the morning of June 3, character actor James Handy walked outside a home in Tarzana to get the paper. He never made it back inside. Police found the 81-year-old lying in the front yard, suffering from a stab wound to the chest, in a scene his longtime friend and fellow actor Brian Delate would later describe as almost impossible to process.

Handy was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Los Angeles prosecutors charged Michael Gledhill, 44, with murder, along with a special allegation that he personally used a deadly weapon. Gledhill is the son of the woman Handy had dated for 31 years, and the two men shared her Tarzana home at the time of the killing.

“I Am the Son of Man”

According to police, officers arrived around 9:30 a.m. after a 911 caller stated, “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin.” Gledhill flagged down responding officers himself and told them he was the person they were looking for, police said. He was taken into custody at the scene.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman addressed the killing in a statement at the time. “This is not how anyone’s life should end, stabbed in the chest and left dying in the front yard of a home,” Hochman said. “The victim, James Handy, deserved to live out his later years enjoying what he had worked so hard for and enjoying it with those he loved and cared about.”

A Hearing That Stalled the Case

On June 22, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maria Cavalluzzi ruled that Gledhill is not mentally competent to stand trial, finding he cannot understand the case against him or rationally assist his own defense. Gledhill was not present for the hearing; one of his public defenders told the court he had declined transportation and waived his appearance.

In a related proceeding before Judge Anthony Mohr, the court ordered that Gledhill be administered psychotropic medication as part of a formal competency-restoration process - a legal track distinct from a mental-health diversion program. Gledhill’s attorney confirmed to the court that he is not a candidate for diversion and is instead pursuing restoration, a process aimed at making a defendant fit to eventually face the charges against him, rather than resolving the case without trial.

Gledhill has been held at Twin Towers Correctional Facility since June 12, with bail set at $2.02 million.

A Decades-Long Career, A Sudden End

Handy spent decades as a familiar face on screen, playing an exterminator in 1995’s “Jumanji” and the bartender Jimmy in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” He also appeared across some of television’s longest-running crime dramas, including “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “The Closer” and “Cold Case.”

Delate, who spoke with The Associated Press in the days after the killing, said Gledhill’s mother had fixed up her garage so her son could live there, and that Handy had mentioned in passing that his girlfriend’s son had mental health problems. Beyond that, Delate described the relationship between the two men as otherwise unremarkable - not a household defined by conflict, but an ordinary one in which something went suddenly, fatally wrong.

What Happens Next

Cavalluzzi ordered Gledhill to appear in court July 14 for a hearing on his long-term placement. If he is later restored to competency, the case will move toward trial; if not, California law allows him to remain in a state hospital for an extended period under separate civil commitment procedures. Emails seeking comment from attorneys for both sides were not immediately answered.

For now, the legal process has effectively paused at the same point it reached three weeks ago: a charge filed, a death confirmed, and a defendant the court says is not yet able to answer for it.

References: Actor James Handy’s alleged killer found mentally incompetent for prosecution | Man charged in killing of actor James Handy found mentally incompetent for prosecution