A 2024 metal-pipe attack near the Santa Monica beach, and the appellate ruling it produced, have reshaped how California courts handle defendants with mental illness who are accused of violent crimes.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 46 on Monday, June 29, changing the standard judges must meet before diverting violent defendants into mental health treatment instead of prosecution. The law requires courts to find that a defendant "will not pose a substantial and undue risk to the physical safety of another person if treated in the community" before granting diversion.

That's a tighter bar than the previous standard, which required only that a defendant not pose "an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety."

The Santa Monica case

On Sunday, March 3, 2024, Job Uriah Taylor, then 27, attacked three Black victims with a metal pipe near the Santa Monica beach. Christian Hornburg, 64, suffered a traumatic brain injury. Taylor was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, and hate-crime allegations.

The attacks occurred shortly after Taylor was released from a psychiatric facility and failed to take his medications, according to the California Appeals Court ruling in the case.

In March 2025, Superior Court Judge Lana Kim issued an order allowing Taylor to enter a two-year diversion program that provides permanent supportive housing for people with mental illness incarcerated in LA County Jail. The LA County District Attorney's office appealed.

On September 30, 2025, a unanimous three-justice Appeals Court panel vacated Kim's order and ruled Taylor must stand trial. The panel found Kim "made no express finding that Taylor would not pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety if granted diversion," and that substantial evidence indicated Taylor would likely abandon any mental health regimen "with potentially catastrophic consequences."

What the new law does

AB 46, sponsored by Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen (D–Elk Grove), passed both chambers of the Legislature before Newsom signed it. The law also requires mental health experts to confirm that a proposed diversion plan is "clinically appropriate" to address a defendant's symptoms.

"Even if a judge believes diversion is not appropriate, they may still be forced to grant it," Nguyen said. "That's not justice. It's not fair to victims, and it's not fair to communities who expect the courts to keep them safe."

Newsom's office said in a statement that the law preserves mental health diversion for people who can benefit from it while giving judges broader discretion to protect victims and communities.

State police unions and law enforcement groups backed the bill. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights opposed it, arguing in a letter that the change would deny eligible defendants access to needed treatment.

What it means for Santa Monica

For Santa Monica, the law changes how cases involving defendants with mental illness who are charged with violent crimes move through the courts. Under the old standard, established by Assembly Bill 1810 in June 2018, judges had limited ability to weigh public safety when a defendant met the clinical criteria for diversion. AB 46 removes that constraint. The effective date of the new law was not specified in available legislative records.

Taylor's current trial status has not been confirmed in available court records. Mental health diversion under California's Penal Code 1001.36 remains unavailable to people accused of murder and certain sex-related offenses.