EXPERTS TESTIFY DU PONT PSYCHOTIC : COMPETENCY HEARING HELD; HEIR STILL FACES TRIAL IN WRESTLER'S DEATH.

Byline: Michael Raphael Associated Press 

Millionaire murder suspect John du Pont is so psychotic - a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 - that there is no way he could be pretending to be incompetent, experts hired by his lawyers testified Saturday.

``He's not faking it. It's real. He's psychotic,'' Dr. Robert Sadoff said as he was cross-examined on the second day of du Pont's competency hearing.

Unless he is declared incompetent, du Pont is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 30 on charges of killing wrestler David Schultz, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist who trained on du Pont's wrestling compound and estate outside Philadelphia.

If he is ruled incompetent, he will be confined to a mental hospital until able to stand trial.

Sadoff and Dr. Phillip Resnick spent about six hours on the stand describing du Pont as having a mixture of rational thoughts with psychotic episodes. Asked by defense attorneys to describe how bad the delusions were, Sadoff said that on a 10-point scale, du Pont's were a top mark. They said he could speak normally about certain topics like wrestling, but that when defense lawyers asked him for help with his case, he became elusive and didn't answer their questions.

``The idea that counsel is coaching him to emphasize (certain behavior) - it just doesn't make sense,'' Resnick testified.

Schultz's wife has said du Pont drove up the driveway at the couple's home on du Pont's estate Jan. 26 and wordlessly shot Schultz in the back.

Du Pont then spent two days holed up in his mansion before police captured him.

An audio tape of that standoff played in court Saturday captured du Pont ordering authorities off his land by saying, ``This is private holy property here - this is a forbidden city.''

As his recorded voice filled the courtroom, the heir to the du Pont chemical fortune began tugging compulsively at his scraggly beard.

Later, a parade of prosecution witnesses, most of them prison employees, testified that du Pont has not acted out of the ordinary during his incarceration.

Mike Peter, a licensed practical nurse at the prison, said that du Pont once said he wanted to go home on bail to obtain papers ``to help his case.'' He said du Pont also asked frequently about newspaper coverage of the case.

And despite testimony that du Pont sometimes lives in a fantasy world in which he considers himself the Dalai Lama or a Russian czar, prosecution witnesses said he frequently responded when called by his own name, John.

Deputy Sheriff Gregory Price testified that during du Pont's arraignment, he heard defense attorney Richard Sprague instruct his client to answer questions with, ``I do not understand.''