EXCLUSIVE — A Virginia mental hospital escapee blamed his past murder charge on Islam-inspired delusions that made him kill without “realizing what he was doing,” records obtained by the Washington Examiner show.

Virginia officials said in 2025 that illegal immigrant Abdulloi Toshpulodzoda showed progress in overcoming “persecutory paranoia and hyper-religious thoughts” since the victim’s 2019 stabbing death, according to the state’s documents asking a Fairfax County court for conditional release. Toshpulodzoda, who was declared legally insane in the killing, gained national attention for self-deporting out of the country in July despite a judge ordering the state to keep him under hospital supervision. Police arrested Toshpulodzoda in December 2019 upon finding his landlord’s body in their Vienna home, with the defendant telling officers, “I am guilty” while covered in blood, police reports show.