A Hennepin County district judge will soon decide the fate of a 34-year-old man who killed his father with a knife and hammer in their south Minneapolis home in January, following a brief virtual trial Wednesday.

Anthony R. Jolson appeared from Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter, where he was civilly committed. He is pleading not guilty by reason of mental illness to one count of intentional second-degree murder in the death of 58-year-old Donald Lee Jolson on Jan. 13. Police found the father on the living room couch with head fractures and stab wounds to his neck and upper chest inside the family's home in south Minneapolis.

The trial was on stipulated facts and evidence, meaning prosecutors and Jolson's public defender presented both for Judge Carolina Lamas to take under advisement. Lamas said she would reach her verdict in under a week. She will pore over police reports, witness interviews, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office autopsy report and Jolson's evaluation that determined he was mentally competent to stand trial.

Jolson's attorney Laura Johnson read the facts of the case and he agreed to them. Johnson said if the court finds him not guilty, he would still have to enter a civil commitment procedure, but "he is already committed as mentally ill and dangerous."

He said he is taking medication as prescribed and is thinking clearly.

Johnson is asking Lamas to find him not guilty by reason of mental illness, and Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Stuart Shapiro said the state is not contesting that finding or the facts and evidence Johnson presented Wednesday.

When police arrived around 9 p.m., Anthony Jolson answered the door but police had to force their way in because he refused to cooperate. Inside the living room they found a bloody knife and hammer. The father was pronounced dead at the scene, and examiners determined he died from blunt force trauma.

Anthony Jolson told his brother that "the devil made me do it" and that he "sneak" attacked their father, according to criminal charges. The brother told police that Jolson had recently been acting strangely, talking about the devil and COVID.

The three Jolson men all lived in the home. The brother said that he left earlier that day to go ice skating and that he discovered their unresponsive father when he returned that evening. He fled the home out of fear after being inside for about 15 minutes, charges said.

Jolson admitted that he intentionally hit his father in the head with a hammer.