Trial for abduction, assault suspect begins

Jury selection in the trial of the California man accused of abducting a 10-year-old Santa Clara girl and sexually assaulting her started Tuesday in Lane County.

Malcolm Michael Gerlach admits to the crimes--but he says he was insane when he committed the crimes.

Jury selection is expected to resume Wednesday morning. 

According to Lane County Sheriff's deputies, Gerlach kidnapped the young girl as she rode her bike along River Loop #1 in January 2009, knocking her off the bike with a stolen car.  Neighbors heard her screams and tried to catch them, but were unable to stop Gerlach.  They called police, who located the stolen vehicle.  Gerlach didn't stop, leading police on a chase into rural Lane County before crashing the car with the girl inside.

Although he had the girl for less than one hour--just 58 minutes--he assaulted her.  It's a unique case becaues the jury is not tasked with determining Gerlach's guilt.  The California man admits committing all the crimes.  Instead, the jury will decide if Gerlach was insane at the time--and unable to determine his actions were wrong or prevent himself from doing the criminal acts.