Jury deliberates Ojai Valley double murder, weighs defendant's state of mind

Kathleen Wilson, Ventura County Star
·2 min read
This is the home where Margaret Dahl, 59, and her 82-year-old mother, Phyllis Porter, were found dead in Oak View. The home is in the 100 block of Valley Ridge Drive.
This is the home where Margaret Dahl, 59, and her 82-year-old mother, Phyllis Porter, were found dead in Oak View. The home is in the 100 block of Valley Ridge Drive.
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A double murder case was headed to a Ventura County jury Thursday after a trial focused heavily on the state of the mind of an Ojai Valley man accused of stabbing two women to death four years ago.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ryan Wright was due to send the case to the jury Thursday afternoon after attorneys made closing arguments lasting more than three hours Wednesday and Thursday.

The prosecution asked jurors to convict Shawn Shirck of first-degree, premeditated murder while the defense said he must be found not guilty of murder or manslaughter unless the prosecution shows beyond a reasonable doubt that he was not unconscious at the time of the killings.

The defense argues that Shirck, 29, lacked the state of mind to kill intentionally because alcohol and childhood trauma had altered his brain, leaving him unable to think logically under stress. A parade of character witnesses described Shirck as non-violent and kind, which his attorney said is sharply at odds with the repeated stabbings of the two women early in the morning of Aug. 24, 2019.

Shirck is accused of killing Margaret Dahl, 59, and her 82-year-old mother, Phyllis Porter, at the home where the two women were living in Oak View. Shirck's father owns the home where Dahl had lived for years and her mother often visited.

Shawn Shirck's altered brain state results in "the madness you saw," defense attorney Ayala Benefraim told the jury.

Benefraim made her arguments after the prosecution showed photos of the bloody crime scene and recounted the DNA findings, testimony, phone records and other evidence presented during the trial that began last month. Together, they show that the defendant not only committed the crimes but had the intent to kill the women, prosecutor Cynthia Nguyen said.

"He acted the way a guilty man acts," Nguyen told the jury. "He hid evidence. He hid himself, hoping no one would figure out it's him."

Kathleen Wilson covers crime, courts and local government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at 805-437-0271 or kathleen.wilson@vcstar.com.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Jury in Ojai Valley double murder weighs defendant's state of mind