A woman who claimed she was a government assassin of traitors was insane when she stabbed two men to death in 2004, a judge ruled Monday.

Amber Torrez, 21, was tried Monday for the murders of John Hand, founder of Colorado Free University, and Freedom Cab driver Mesfin Gezahegn.

Hand, 55, was found dead of 30 stab wounds in his Denver apartment March 28, 2004. Gezahegn, 45, was killed the next day, stabbed 39 times near his cab at East 18th Avenue and Gilpin Street.

In the face of "unrebutted" conclusions from two psychiatrists and a psychologist that Torrez was delusional and psychotic when she killed Hand and Gezahegn, Denver District Judge Christina Habas said she was compelled to find Torrez not guilty by reason of insanity.

The judge ordered Torrez committed to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo until she is eligible for release.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed to a trial without a jury, in part because Torrez has adamantly insisted she is guilty and wanted to be sentenced immediately. Over her objections, her attorney entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

"It's been a long process - two years and five months since Amber Torrez savagely killed my brother," said Helen Hand. "I have to accept the conclusion reached today is appropriate. I will never be able to remove the images in my mind of how my brother lost his life."

Hand said her brother would be remembered as an "incredibly wonderful, vibrant, kind, life-affirming person" who leaves behind a legacy of his two children as well as Colorado Free University.

Gezahegn's brother, Haile Selassie Girmay, was upset with the trial, saying "there is no justice in this country."

He said he will not call his brother an American anymore - even though Gezahegn had become a U.S. citizen - because "America did not serve him justice."

T.C. Clinton, one of the prosecutors in the case, said he was not surprised by the judge's decision.

"The court's ruling was directly on point," Clinton said. "The court found that there were three unrebutted psychiatric opinions that she was legally insane."

Psychiatrists Karen Fukutaki and Mark Diamond testified that Torrez was insane when she repeatedly stabbed both men to death.

She viewed herself as a vigilante of morality, they said.

"She felt she was on a mission," Diamond said. "She believed they were traitors and needed to be killed. She believed it was her duty to get rid of these people, and the world would be a better place."

The doctors said Torrez believed she had a mandate from the government to recruit a global army of 700 assassins for her Shadow Angel Industries, a group that would kill enemies of the government, particularly robbers, rapists, prostitutes and their patrons.

Torrez understood that mainstream society would perceive her acts as wrong, Diamond said, but "she felt she had a higher calling."

The psychiatrists said they found no evidence that Torrez was faking her mental illness, noting that defendants falsely claiming to be insane rarely want to plead guilty.

Torrez had been diagnosed with mental illnesses since age 14 and had begun to craft her delusional Shadow Angel Industries in her mind at about that time, Fukutaki said.

Her condition worsened after she was brutally attacked by an ex-boyfriend at age 15, whom she believed was not appropriately punished, Fukutaki said. Torrez has post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result, the psychiatrist said.