A jury reached a verdict Wednesday afternoon and found that it is more likely than not that a Santa Barbara woman was legally insane when she attempted to murder her former classmate.

Cora Vides, 21, was found guilty of attempted murder for the February 2021 stabbing on Aug. 12.

Vides pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity which meant her trial was broken into two phases, the guilt phase and the sanity phase.

In the first phase, District Attorney’s Office prosecutors Kevin Weichbrod and Sarah Barkley had the burden to prove that Vides intentionally attempted to murder the victim.

After weeks of testimony from the victim, Vides’ friends and family, detectives and multiple psychologists, the jury reached a guilty verdict.  

In the second phase, defense attorneys Robert Sanger and Todd Maybrown had the burden to prove that it was more likely than not that Vides was legally insane at the time she committed the crime. 

The law considers a person legally insane if they had a mental disease or defect and, because of that disease or defect, the person was incapable of knowing the nature of their act or knowing that it was morally or legally wrong. 

Because jurors determined Vides was legally insane, she will likely undergo a six-month assessment from a state mental hospital to determine treatment and length of stay. She will likely serve her sentence at a state mental hospital instead of prison and will face a reduced sentence than if she was found to not be legally insane, Weichbrod said. 

For the sanity phase, the jury deliberated a little over a week after hearing testimony from multiple psychologists who evaluated Vides after the stabbing. 

The defense argued Vides was suffering from a dissociative state and major depressive disorder at the time of the crime. 

Vides was accused of stabbing her former classmate around 2 a.m. at Vides’ bedroom at her family’s home in Santa Barbara.

Vides stabbed the victim in her neck after getting the victim to lie down and close her eyes, with the pretense that Vides was showing her a meditation technique, according to trial testimony.

Vides was booked into jail custody on Aug. 12 after the guilty verdict was read and remained in custody as of Wednesday. She previously had been free on $1 million bail.