Bizarre bath-salts-fueled burglary at Forest Park home ends in guilty verdict

A Multnomah County jury returned a quick verdict Wednesday for a man whose

bath-salts-fueled home invasion terrorized

a Portland couple two years ago.

Anthony Mazzi was convicted of first-degree burglary, menacing and coercion for forcing the elder couple out of their Northwest Skyline Boulevard home on March 13, 2023.

Mazzi, 35, had been seeking methamphetamine when he said he mistakenly ingested bath salts and ended up high and dry at the home near a popular Forest Park trailhead. He grabbed a ladder and was attempting to pry open a second-floor window screen when the couple confronted him.

Prosecutor Branden Meadows told the jury that the encounter left 78-year-old Ann Ruttan still reeling from the effects.

“Now, she has night terrors,” he said. “She has fears associated with living in her own house.”

Mazzi got off the ladder and

scooted past the couple

into the house, with his pitbull and girlfriend in tow. Ruttan’s husband, 87-year-old Marvin Hautala, ordered them to leave, but they claimed to be the rightful owners.

What happened next was captured in a chaotic 911 call as Mazzi can be heard shouting “leave, leave!” in the background.

“Careful man, don’t touch me,” Hautala says.

“I know the real truth,” Mazzi replies ominously. “I know who, I know what and I know when.”

[VIDEO: 911 audio captures bizarre burglary in Forest Park neighborhood]

Police responded to the home and found the rightful occupants outside in the rain, prompting an hours-long standoff that ended when police blew the front door off its hinges and located Mazzi upstairs, taking a nap. Nothing else in the house had been damaged.

The girlfriend, 35-year-old Kerina Trabue, also faces first-degree burglary charges in the case but hasn’t been seen since June 2023, when she made a $1,500 down payment on her bail and then skipped her next court date.

In court, defense attorney Erin Suggs said Mazzi had been tricked by Trabue, who drove the couple to the house and claimed it really was hers.

“She’s giving him wrong information and unleashed him on these homeowners,” Suggs said. “It was scary, but he was not acting intentionally.”

Michael Mazzi, left, was arrested during a home invasion off Northwest Skyline Boulevard on March 13, 2023.

Submitted Photos

Meadows, the

prosecutor

, said that Mazzi was intoxicated but still in control, noting he had been able to find and climb a ladder while seeking entry to the home.

The jury agreed, returning a guilty verdict on all seven counts in about 30 minutes.

Mazzi faces at least a year-long punishment, according to sentencing guidelines.

—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083,

zsparling@oregonian.com

or

@pdxzane

.

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