A Saginaw man accused of stabbing four people on an Amtrak train that was stationed in Niles has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Berrien County Judge Dennis Wiley made the ruling this week after a report by the state forensic examiner found the accused, 45-year-old Michael Darnell Williams, “mentally ill,” according to the county prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutor Mike Sepic said Thursday that Williams would be placed in the care of the state’s mental health system where he will undergo an evaluation during a period not to exceed 60 days.

Based on the outcome of the evaluation, Sepic said Williams could be entered into a custodial treatment plan, placed in a community mental health setting or released.

“It is kind of frustrating, but that’s the way that stuff works,” Sepic said.

Williams was charged with five counts of attempted murder, each carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. The charges stemmed from an incident Dec. 5, 2014, on the Amtrak train stationed in Niles.

Prior to the train arriving at the station, railroad personnel were alerted to Williams because of strange behavior and had called for police to respond. As the train stopped and police approached, Williams pulled a knife, stabbed a conductor and three passengers before being confronted and subdued with a taser by Niles police officer Shane Daniel.

Williams pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, resulting in him being examined for criminal responsibility by the state’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry.

In a 38-page report, the examiner found, “Williams to be mentally ill and suffering from a delusional disorder which caused him to be incapable of accurately perceiving his environment, a symptom of his mental illness which was documented in the days preceding the offenses. Rather than consider his options and make a decision to engage in illegal behavior, Mr. Williams appears to have reacted spontaneously and only in consideration of delusional information. Based on his report of the offense, supported by collateral information, he harbored specific delusions that others were following him with the intentions to cause him serious harm or kill him. It appears Mr. Williams was unable to reflect as to what would happen if he acted in such a manner.”

According to the county prosecutor’s office, the standard for insanity in Michigan is a person is legally insane if, as a result of mental illness, a person lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her conduct or to conform that conduct to the requirements of law.

The prosecutor’s office engaged the services of an independent examiner who reviewed the aforementioned report and found it to be credible and reliable.

Sepic said his office could have proceeded to trial despite the findings, but that doing so would have left a jury little room to decide anything except that Williams was not guilty by reason of insanity.

“This stuff doesn’t happen that often,” Sepic said. “When it is in a situation where four people were stabbed, it is not the outcome you’d like to look for.”

Sepic went on to say that the state examiner’s report was “thorough” and that the findings in the report were reasonable, although he hoped for a different finding.