New London Superior Court Judge Hillary B. Strackbein on Friday ordered 20-year-old Alec Chattin, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity of stabbing his mother at their Ledyard home last year, committed to the state's psychiatric care system for up to 19 years.

Chattin's attorney, Kevin C. Barrs, had pursued an insanity defense for Chattin, who had been diagnosed mentally ill at a young age and increasingly had become isolated and fearful after he stopped taking his medication and failed out of college.

At a hearing in November 2016, clinical psychologist Leslie M. Lothstein had testified that Chattin was having a psychotic break and was hearing voices when he stabbed Brenda Chattin in her bedroom at their 24 Country Club Drive home in January 2016 after unsuccessfully attempting to shoot her.

After the hearing, Strackbein ruled that Chattin had committed crimes, but was not guilty of attempted first-degree assault and second-degree assault due to a mental disease or defect that rendered him unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to control his conduct. She committed him to the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital, where clinicians evaluated him and submitted a report for the judge's consideration at sentencing. He will now be in the custody of the state's Psychiatric Security Review Board, which will determine what level confinement is necessary and, in the future, whether Chattin should be released to the community.

Chattin, who after the incident asked his mother for a hug, called 911 at her request and surrendered peacefully to police. He previously had been held at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire. Brenda Chattin testified at the insanity hearing that her son had severed the main tendon to her index finger, slashed her ear from top to bottom and cut her left side and arm.

Lothstein said that in early childhood, Chattin had been diagnosed with several conditions, including Asperger's disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, sensory integration disorder, depression and anxiety disorder.

Chattin's parents were divorced and he lived alone with his mother at the time of the incident. The family had in the home "a lot of weapons, including a gun rack with rifles and German pistols (Lugers) and weapons Chattin and his father had used in re-enacting WWII events with the father-son duo playing Nazis," according to the report.

Chattin kept a rifle and handgun under his bed for self-protection, according to the report. He also had a large collection of knives but no machetes or swords, according to the report. Chattin had tried to shoot his mother with the .22-caliber rifle, but even though there was a round of ammunition in the gun's chamber, it did not fire because of a safety feature that requires a magazine to be in the gun for it to function, according to testimony. He then used a Cold Steel knife to stab her multiple times and choked her, according to testimony.

On the day of the incident, she had taken him to McDonald's to look for a job but the restaurant was not hiring, according to the report.

k.florin@theday.com