Sam Altman Attacker Had Mental Health Crisis, Defense Says (2)

The 20-year-old Texas man who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was having “an acute mental health crisis,” his attorneys said Tuesday, calling the District Attorney’s attempted murder charge unjust.

“This case is clearly overcharged. This case is a property crime at best. No one was injured,” Diamond Ward, a San Francisco public defender representing Daniel Moreno-Gama, told reporters after he made his first court appearance Tuesday.

Judge Kenneth Wine of the California Superior Court in San Francisco at the brief hearing agreed to delay Moreno-Gama’s arraignment by three weeks at the request of his counsel. The judge said Moreno-Gama is a danger to the public and ordered him to remain in custody until his next court appearance on May 5.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the attack in the early morning last Friday was an attempt to kill Altman for his work and leadership on artificial intelligence, pointing to documents authored by Moreno-Gama detailing the man’s hatred for the technology and for Altman.

The state case is being charged alongside a federal prosecution announced yesterday by US Attorney Craig Missakian who said Moreno-Gama’s attack was being treated as an act of domestic terrorism. Moreno-Gama was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives in the federal case where he hasn’t yet made an appearance.

Moreno-Gama, wearing an orange jumper, didn’t speak during the Tuesday hearing other that to confirm that he agreed with his attorneys’ advice to delay his arraignment. The judge also issued a protective order prohibiting Moreno-Gama from going near or contacting Altman, OpenAI, and other AI executives in the event he is ever released from jail.

Ward told reporters after the hearing that Moreno-Gama has a history of autism and mental health illness, and that before the incident he was working at a pizzeria and attending community college in Texas where he lived.

She said the state and federal charges are an attempt “to fear monger and to exploit the mental illness of a vulnerable young man by turning a vandalism case into an attempted murder, life exposure case, to gain support of a billionaire and to get political points at the expense of true justice.”

Ward declined to answer any questions.

Moreno-Gama’s parents issued a statement delivered by the Office of the Public Defender for San Francisco that said their son “is a loving person who has been suffering recently from a mental illness crisis.”

“We have been trying our best to address these issues and get him effective treatment, and we are very concerned for his wellbeing,” the statement said, which didn’t identify his parents by name. “He is a very caring person and has never been arrested before.

Jenkins told reporters after the hearing that the accusations that she is overcharging the case don’t comport with the evidence showing Moreno-Gama’s intent to murder. “It wouldn’t matter if this was a billionaire or a CEO or any average San Franciscan,” Jenkins said. “If somebody comes here with the intent to commit murder and attempts to effectuate that murder, that is a case that we will take extremely seriously.”

Police responded to the incident at Altman’s property in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood where Moreno-Gama allegedly threw an incendiary device that caused a small fire at the top of the driveway gate but did not cause any injuries. Authorities later arrested Moreno-Gama after he went to the OpenAI headquarters and allegedly threw a chair at its door and threatened to burn down the building.

Moreno-Gama allegedly possessed a document that he authored entitled “Your Last Warning” that advocated against AI and for the killing of Altman and other CEOs and investors of top AI companies and included their addresses. He allegedly also possessed a letter addressed to Altman stating: "“If by some miracle you live, then I would take this as a sign from the divine to redeem yourself…”

Altman authored a blog post in response to the incident stating he welcomes valid criticisms of his work.

The case is The People of the State of California v., Cal. Super. Ct., No. CRI-26008179, 4/14/26.