The 61-year-old Nashville man who was accused nearly a year and a half ago of hitting an exchange student in the back with a hatchet did not intend to hurt the girl, he and several other witnesses testified this week.

Dana Ericson, his doctors and his 100-year-old mother told the court that he has a long history of mental illness.

On Feb. 18, 2015, when he approached Yue Zhang, yelled about killing her and bloodied her back with the blade, he was in a downward cycle that his mother, Davida Ericson, had seen before.

“At the beginning, there is euphoria,” she said. “At the end, there is mania.”

This afternoon, after a two-day bench trial, Brown Circuit Judge Judith Stewart ruled that Ericson was not responsible by reason of insanity. He had been charged with three felonies, including attempted murder, in the attack that left 18-year-old Zhang with limited use of an arm for about three weeks, Prosecutor Ted Adams said. She has since regained all function.

Zhang, who is overseas, did not testify in person, but a transcript of her testimony was entered into evidence.

Ericson’s attorney, Jacob Moore, called the verdict “a relief.”

“I think that this was the right outcome under the law,” he said. “I recognize when people first hear the news, they might be surprised, they might even be angry, but if people learn all the nuances of this complex situation, I think a reasonable person would conclude that this was consistent with the law and also consistent with public safety.”

Adams said there were four potential outcomes in this case, for which Moore had filed a notice to use the insanity defense: Guilty, not guilty, guilty but mentally ill, or not responsible by reason of insanity.

Adams said he was hoping Ericson would have been found guilty but mentally ill, which would have meant he’d be committed to the Indiana Department of Correction to receive mental health treatment.

With a ruling of not responsible by reason of insanity, Ericson will stay in custody until he has a commitment hearing, Adams said. Then, a doctor will evaluate him to decide if he’s gravely ill or dangerous. “If he’s either of those, he’s going to be committed to a mental institute indefinitely,” Adams said.

“Clearly, Dana Ericson, the evidence shows, is mentally ill,” he said. “I don’t think the state could reasonably argue otherwise.”

After he was arrested at the scene, Ericson, in a police interview, said he was attempting “ethnic cleansing.”

Testifying in his own defense Tuesday, he said that was completely out of character with his actual beliefs.

“I have nothing to do with racial hatred. I am opposed to hatred,” he said.

In that moment, he was convinced that if he could make “contact” with Zhang — a Chinese woman whom he did not know — he could somehow disrupt the “armageddon” be believed the Chinese government was planning.

“I had no wish to harm her. I am so sorry,” he said.

“All that was in my mind was trying to do somebody good. I was in a disturbed psychotic state. I am not claiming this is something that is going to make a lot of sense, but I am trying to explain what my thinking is.”

Read more in the Aug. 23 paper.