A Japanese man who stabbed an Englishman lecturing on thought transference eight months ago has been sentenced to three years behind bars — the maximum he could have received.

Kazuki Hirano will spend the next three months in the state Corrections Department's mental-health center in Los Lunas, then return to a Santa Fe court for a hearing on Feb. 27 to see how his treatment is working out.

State District Judge Michael Vigil sentenced Hirano on Friday — a month after a jury found him "guilty but mentally ill" of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the least of four possible criminal charges against him.

Hirano, 34, stabbed Rupert Sheldrake in the upper left thigh with a hunting knife on April 2 as the internationally known expert on mental telepathy finished speaking on "Memory and Morphic Resonance" during the final day of the 10th International Conference on Science and Consciousness at La Fonda.

Hirano, who was immediately subdued by people attending the conference, subsequently claimed Sheldrake or others are controlling his mind. He said he had come from his home in Yokohama, Japan, to ask Sheldrake to help him block the "remote mental telepathy," but Sheldrake had rebuked him in a hallway by telling him to "ask a Buddhist."

During Friday's sentencing hearing, Sheldrake spoke to the court by telephone from his home in London, telling the judge he has recovered from his injuries and his main concern is his and his family's safety. Hirano "is clearly a very disturbed man with delusions that I control his hallucinations," he said.

Sheldrake said there is no assurance Hirano will be treated if he is deported to Japan, where mental illness is considered even more shameful than in the United States. Nor is there assurance, Sheldrake said, that Hirano wouldn't fly to London to confront him again. Hirano lived in London for two years while married to an Englishwoman.

Hirano, who has continued to deny he is mentally ill and to insist his mind is being controlled, spoke briefly in his own behalf: "I need go back to Japan ... to get a brain scan ... and find out exactly what I have and I can fix it. So don't worry. ... I not go after Sheldrake."

George Greer, a psychiatrist working for the prosecution, asked Vigil to order the Corrections Department to assign Hirano a treatment guardian to make decisions for him about how to address his schizophrenia. Greer said Hirano doesn't understand that the voices he hears are not real, but only the effect of his illness.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Campbell said the state cannot, as Sheldrake suggested, require the government of Japan to take away Hirano's passport or provide him with treatment, but it can make sure he is kept in jail and given treatment in New Mexico. Campbell said Hirano tried to mislead the court over why and when he purchased the knife used to stab Sheldrake.

Defense attorney Sidney West, a public defender, said Hirano would probably receive a probated sentence if he were a U.S. citizen, and his condition would get worse the longer he is held in jail. She said Hirano will eventually be deported to Japan and urged Vigil to allow that to happen sooner than later.

Richard Nasef, a marriage and family therapist who speaks Japanese and has lived in Japan, testified at the hearing for the defense that Hirano's prognosis would improve if he were in a supportive environment near family members.

Judge Vigil recalled that 25 years ago he was a treatment guardian at the Penitentiary of New Mexico where he was embarrassed by the poor treatment given the mentally ill. Vigil, who agreed to order a treatment guardian for Hirano, said he hoped prison mental-health treatment has improved so it could help Hirano "in his struggle to understand the schizophrenia (and) to attain some level of control."

Sheldrake thanked Vigil for his "very compassionate judgment."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.