EXCLUSIVE — A Virginia mental hospital escapee blamed his past murder charge on Islam-inspired delusions that made him kill without “realizing what he was doing,” records obtained by the Washington Examiner show.
Virginia officials said in 2025 that illegal immigrant Abdulloi Toshpulodzoda showed progress in overcoming “persecutory paranoia and hyper-religious thoughts” since the victim’s 2019 stabbing death, according to the state’s documents asking a Fairfax County court for conditional release. Toshpulodzoda, who was declared legally insane in the killing, gained national attention for self-deporting out of the country in July despite a judge ordering the state to keep him under hospital supervision. Police arrested Toshpulodzoda in December 2019 upon finding his landlord’s body in their Vienna home, with the defendant telling officers, “I am guilty” while covered in blood, police reports show.
The health records filed in court detail how Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services deemed Toshpulodzoda safe for the community before giving him unsupervised 48-hour release privileges. That freedom allowed Toshpulodzoda to board a plane to Turkey after he expressed worry about an immigration detainment order against him, court filings show. Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger promised in August to investigate why the DBHDS freed Toshpulodzoda.
‘Shall not be released from custody’
Toshpulodzoda, a Tajikistani national, said he began struggling with mental health in 2017 due to “grandiose/religious delusions about being God’s servant” and “paranoia toward family members and the government,” experts told the court, citing his own account. His family took him to a Muslim imam, whose spiritual guidance helped stop the symptoms temporarily, according to the documents.
About a month before killing his landlord, Toshpulodzoda endured delusions and paranoia about people trying to kill him “who were working against God,” “dueling delusions of being a savior and being the antichrist,” and fears that “the world was about to come to an end,” doctors wrote.
“He struggled with these thoughts to the point that he began to bang his head on the ground until he bled before experiencing a ‘moment of clarity’ and stopped,” the reports say. Toshpulodzoda later killed the landlord after the victim “asked a question about his brother,” which made him believe the landlord was an enemy seeking to kill him, according to the DBHDS.
“Out of fear, Mr. Toshpulodzoda took a knife and repeatedly stabbed the landlord, not realizing what he was doing,” doctors wrote. “He realized he had hurt the landlord when he was covered in his blood.”
Virginia grand jurors indicted Toshpulodzoda in May 2020 for the killing, but a court granted his insanity plea in October 2022 and committed him to annual reviews assessing whether the DBHDS should release him. The court continually disagreed with the DBHDS’s claims that he was mentally fit for conditional release, ruling in June that he “shall not be released from custody and inpatient hospitalization” without further orders, documents show.
The state told the court in late 2025 that, since the incident, Toshpulodzoda had shown promising signs that he could be a safe member of society.
“Mr. Toshpulodzoda was well-groomed and presented as his stated age,” a summary of one doctor’s interview says. “He is well-oriented to place, time, and person. There is no clinical evidence of psychomotor disturbance. He maintained good eye contact. He described his mood as ‘very good.’”
“He also identified his faith as a source of comfort and a coping strategy during times of stress, as he feels empowered by his faith,” according to the reports.
Fleeing from ICE
Toshpulodzoda told the DBHDS that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer issued against him was causing him “normative levels of worry,” the department wrote. He showed awareness of the risk of ICE detainment and deportation and had already sought immigration-related legal help, the doctors found. The DBHDS expressed concern that his “psychiatric condition may deteriorate” in ICE custody without continued treatment.
By the time the DBHDS documented these concerns in court filings, Toshpulodzoda already had a passport to leave the country.
Fairfax County prosecutor Steve Descano approved a request from the acquittee in May 2024 to obtain the passport from the Tajikistan Embassy in Washington, D.C., and told the Daily Wire it would be “for documentary purposes.” Descano blamed his escape from the United States on Spanberger’s administration in comments to the press.
Spanberger’s office did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Descano has also taken criticism over his office accepting insanity pleas from Toshpulodzoda and other undisputed killers based on input from the prosecution’s chosen health experts. The commonwealth’s attorney and his team previously told the Washington Examiner that prosecuting Toshpulodzoda would be pointless since the government’s expert backed up his insanity claims.
The Trump administration did not seem to oppose Toshpulodzoda’s departure, marking him as another illegal immigrant removed from the country.
‘I AM GUILTY’: HOW FAIRFAX COUNTY’S STEVE DESCANO KEEPS LETTING KILLERS OFF WITH INSANITY PLEAS
“He lawfully entered the United States on December 15, 2009, under the Obama administration, and violated the terms of his admission, losing his status to remain in the United States,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “Against our nation’s laws, he failed to depart when he no longer had permission to remain in the country.”
The spokesperson added that “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.” under President Donald Trump.