St. Cloud Man Found Mentally Ill in Carjacking Case

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- A St. Cloud man arrested after a string of crashes and a carjacking has been found not guilty by reason of mental illness.

In a trial by stipulated facts, 36-year-old John Dragich was found to be "in the throes of a psychotic episode" and "was not in control of his own mind and faculties". As a result, a Stearns County judge ruled he was to be civilly committed as mentally ill.

The incident happened last August when St. Cloud Police responded to a crash at the intersection of 8th Avenue North and 6th Street North where a vehicle had struck a stop sign. That vehicle, driven by Dragich, was involved in two additional crashes.

In one of those crashes, Dragich appeared to intentionally rear-end a van occupied by a 48-year-old man from St. Cloud. When the victim exited his vehicle, Dragich got into the driver's seat of the victim's van and attempted to leave the scene. The victim tried to prevent Dragich from stealing the van and was dragged a short distance receiving minor injuries.

Court records show a court-appointed doctor determined Dragich was being "directed" by some supernatural force that told him to "save the voices in the van" that was in front of him causing him to rear-end the van. He determined Dragich was "laboring under such a defect of reason as to not know his actions were wrong" and that he was experiencing a psychotic episode.

In total, five vehicles were struck during the incident and only minor injuries were reported.