A former college student accused of murdering two people in a garage, and engaging in a cannibalistic activity by chewing on the face of one of his victims, will not spend his life in prison.

Austin Harrouff, 25, was facing first-degree murder charges for a double homicide he committed six years ago in 2016. A judge found the 25-year-old not guilty and accepted an insanity plea in the murder of 59-year-old John Stevens and his wife, 53-year-old Michelle Mishcon Stevens, at their Florida home.

Harrouff has always maintained that he cannot remember the details of the gruesome murder, but he believed the devil had possessed him during the murders.

The judge made his decision during the first day of a murder trial which was expected to last about three weeks.

If the trial had gone forward, Harrouff might have faced life in prison.

Harrouff murdered the couple in cold blood and stabbed a neighbor who came to help them. His cannibalistic behavior made the crime even more outrageous. The killer was a 19-year-old university student at the time of the murders. Police arrested him the same day.

In 2020, Harrouff’s lawyers entered a not-guilty plea and pleaded insanity. His parents also asserted that he was not mentally stable at the time. Judge Sherwood Bauer accepted the plea on Monday.

Judge Bauer’s ruling means that the 25-year-old will be involuntarily committed to a mental health facility with the possibility of release once he is deemed no longer a threat to society.

The decision left the victim’s family angry; they insist that Harrouff was not mentally ill. They say he was a drug addict who was fully aware of his actions.

Cindy Mishcon, the sister of Michelle Mishcon, said the judge’s decision dumbfounded her and that the judge was letting a double murderer walk out the door. She said she thought of the decision as “White, rich boy justice.”

Jodi Bruce, Mishcon’s other sister, said she did not know that someone could brutally kill two people and try to murder another and not have a trial.

The night of the murder, Harrouff and his father were out having dinner at a restaurant when he began acting erratically and took off. He went to his mother’s house, mixed cooking oil and parmesan cheese, and started drinking the mixture before his mother stopped him and took him back to the restaurant.

Back at the restaurant, he and his father got into an argument, and he left 45 minutes before the murders.

He entered the couple’s home, four miles from the restaurant, through their open garage door and used their tools to kill them.

During an interview with Dr. Phil on national television, Harrouff said he was escaping a demon and could not remember what had transpired. He said he remembered encountering Mishcon and the rest of the night was a blur. He could not remember why he killed the couple.

During his judgment, Judge Bauer said that two mental health experts concluded that the man was not in his right mind when he committed the heinous crimes. He also noted that the prosecutors and defense team agreed that Harrouff suffered from mental illness based on the facts.

Dr. Gregory C. Landrum said the man was legally insane at the time of the murders, as he was on treatment for schizophrenia.