He has not been seen publicly for nearly a decade after allegedly going on a week-long bloody crime spree across Los Angeles, which left two actors with life-changing injuries.

But this week, Redmond O’Neal – the only son of legendary actors Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett – finally appeared in court after his May 2018 arrest, having been deemed mentally competent to face trial.

The 41-year-old looked much heavier-set than when he was detained eight years ago, when he was gaunt, thin and in the throes of drug addiction.

He also had new devil horns tattooed on his forehead, adding to a pre-existing face tattoo with numbers meaning he is a ‘danger to others’. New ink on his left hand also read, ‘F*** life.’

At his preliminary hearing on Tuesday at a Los Angeles court, the judge heard graphic details of how O’Neal allegedly attacked a gay actor at random, smashing him in the face with a glass bottle and beating him to a pulp. 

The actor required facial reconstruction surgery and said he can no longer work because of the trauma.

O’Neal is also accused of stabbing another actor in the head and other parts of his body at least five times, causing traumatic brain injury. He testified he now has epilepsy because of his injuries.

He is facing one count of felony attempted murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and second-degree robbery, for the alleged knifepoint robbery of a 7-Eleven convenience store. If convicted on the attempted murder charge, he faces life in prison. 

Redmond O’Neal, 41, is seen at the LA Airport courthouse where he was arraigned on Tuesday on a second amended criminal complaint in connection to an alleged crime spree in May 2018

O’Neal entered the courtroom in shackles 

Actor Ryan O’Neal (center) and Farrah Fawcett (right) pictured with their only son, Redmond (left) at the premiere for the movie Malibu’s Most Wanted in April 10, 2003

Fawcett is pictured with her son in Vienna in 2001. The actress died on June 29, 2009, aged 62

He was brought into the courtroom with shackles on his hands and ankles and chains around his waist. 

He remained quiet as his defense attorney, Dana Cole, entered a not guilty plea for him during Tuesday’s preliminary hearing.

O’Neal looked markedly different from his 2018 mugshot, which showed him skinnier and with bloody bruises on his right cheek and left earlobe.

On Tuesday, he sported new tattoos, including the horns on his left and right temples.

His left cheek still bore the ‘5250’ tattoo – the California penal code for involuntary detention for suspects deemed a danger to themself or others.

He kept his head down and scowled entering the courtroom, but his face lit up when he noticed his godmother, Mela Murphy, in the gallery.

He flashed her a quick smile, nodded, and mouthed, ‘Hi,’ as she smiled back and wiped tears from her eyes.

Murphy, Fawcett’s former hairdresser and a close friend of the actress for decades, is now O’Neal’s court-appointed conservator.

She told the Daily Mail her godson has been ‘doing better’ at Patton State Hospital, and she still hopes the case could be settled, allowing him to be released under strict supervision with time served.

‘If you look at him now and you speak to him now, he has his mother’s personality,’ Murphy said. ‘He has his mother’s kindness, her goodness.

‘He tells me, “Please don’t cry Mela, don’t worry. It will be fine. God will take us in the right direction.”‘

Murphy said O’Neal has gained weight because of his medication, which has helped him significantly.

‘He found God in Patton State hospital. The medication is working beautifully and he’s going to his life skills classes everyday.

‘When I ask him, ‘Are you opening up and helping others there at Patton?’ He always says, ‘Absolutely.’ He still has hope that he will get out.’

Redmond O’Neal looked at the nearly empty courtroom but flashed a huge smile immediately after he spotted his godmother, Mela Murphy, in the audience

O’Neal looks back to see if his godmother, Mela Murphy, was still in the audience

Mental health records obtained by the Daily Mail show O’Neal was diagnosed in 2017 with schizophrenia, alcohol abuse, as well as meth and cocaine abuse.

O’Neal has not been pictured in court for years because his criminal case was paused after a judge ruled in 2019 that he could not assist in his own defense.

Since then, he has been transferred to various state prisons in California, but has been incarcerated at Patton State Hospital, a psychiatric facility in San Bernardino, for the past three and a half years, according to family friends.

Last year, a judge ruled O’Neal finally competent to stand trial and ordered him to face his criminal charges in court.

Prosecutors allege that he committed the attempted murder charge and one of the assault with a deadly weapon counts with a special allegation that the crimes were ‘willful, deliberate and premeditated,’ according to the criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Mail.

He also faces other charges, including battery, making criminal threats, brandishing a knife, and possession of heroin and methamphetamine.

Prosecutors named at least six alleged victims in an amended criminal complaint presented to the court on Tuesday.

During the hearing, LA County Superior Court Judge James P. Cooper heard testimony from Kenneth Fox, one of the alleged victims, who said O’Neal struck him in the face with a glass bottle while hurling homophobic slurs.

Fox said he was walking back from a laundromat in Venice Beach on May 2, 2018, when O’Neal approached him, ‘What are you looking at fag**t,’ and struck him.

‘He then pushed me down on the ground… I couldn’t see anything. My glasses were crushed on my face and I had blood all over me… saying he was going to kill me. He said, ‘You want to f*** me, f****t? I want to f***ing kill you. I’m going to f*** you up!’

Fox said O’Neal continued to kick him and punch him repeatedly. During cross-examination, he revealed he filed a civil suit that settled for $200,000.

When asked if he knew O’Neal was a celebrity child at the time, Fox said he only learned afterward from a detective’s letter.

‘I didn’t know who he was when he beat me. I sued because he called me a f****t and beat me, and I wanted to stand up for myself so this won’t happen to other people.’

Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal were in a long-term, on-again-off-again relationship from 1979 to 1997. They are pictured with Redmond in 1995

Redmond and Ryan O’Neal attend the 3rd annual American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 5, 2013 in Beverly Hills

Ryan O’Neal (second left) and his son Redmond (C) attend court on drugs charges in 2008

Fox also questioned why police reports omitted the homophobic slurs. ‘I think they didn’t write it down because they [the police] were both straight men and probably didn’t give a damn,’ he said.

When pressed about discrepancies between his testimony and the 2018 police report, Fox grew agitated.

‘Asked and answered, motherf***er,’ he shot back when asked why the slurs weren’t included. Judge Cooper instructed him to ‘take a deep breath’ before continuing.

During the heated exchange, O’Neal remained quiet, occasionally looking down at his folded hands as Fox detailed how the 2018 attack had altered his life.

Fox said he still experiences back pain, bloodshot eyes, and facial disfigurement, and has been unable to return to acting. ‘I felt like a wounded animal trapped by someone who was trying to punish me… I have yet to move on.’ 

Seth Folkerson, another one of Redmond’s alleged victims, sat in the courtroom audience on Tuesday because he already testified in December.

Folkerson said he does not remember a lot about the day of his alleged attack on May 4, 2018 because of the head wounds he suffered when O’Neal allegedly stabbed him five times.

Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett at the New York premiere of O’Neal’s movie, Chances Are, in 1991

O’Neal, pictured here in a 2018 mug shot, looked much thinner and gaunt when he was arrested in 2018

The actor said he remembers leaving his work that day at a sunglasses store on the Venice Beach boardwalk and walking to his car that was parked on 4th Street when he was attacked.

Folkerson said his throat was slit along the carotid artery and he was stabbed on his left temple and in his right pectoral muscle. He said the stab wounds were deep enough that his lung and liver were ruptured in the attack. 

Folkerson, who is also an actor, said he was in the hospital for about four and a half months.

‘I suffered a traumatic brain injury, number one,’ Folkerson testified. ‘I’ve had issues with memory, especially in the beginning for a long time, stamina. I developed epilepsy from the head trauma, so I’m on seizure medication, and I couldn’t drive about four and a half years.’

He also said he has not been able to work since.

The judge ordered O’Neal back in court next month to determine if there is enough evidence for him to face criminal charges.

O’Neal struggled with drugs and his mental health from a young age, according to Murphy. For years, Fawcett entered her son into various programs to help him with his mental health and addictions, the godmother said.

Kenneth Fox was overcome with emotion at a press conference as he describe the moment Redmond O’Neal allegedly attacked him with a glass bottle and hurled homophobic slurs 

Defense attorney Dana Cole and O’Neal listened to witnesses testify at O’Neal’s preliminary hearing on March 10

His mother died on June 29, 2009, at 62 after battling anal cancer when O’Neal was 24.

His father, Ryan O’Neal, died on December 8, 2023, at 82 from congestive heart failure.

In a 2018 jail interview with Radar Online shortly after he was arrested, O’Neal blamed his father for his downward spiral. 

‘It’s not the drugs that have been a problem, it’s the psychological trauma of my entire life – my whole life experiences have affected me the most,’ he said at the time, alleging his father had kicked him out and he had been living on the streets.

O’Neal has had multiple brushes with the law, alternating between jail and rehab since 2005, including probation for cocaine and meth possession.

He was arrested in Malibu in 2008 for DUI and possession and famously arrested with his father for drug charges later that year. Both were released on $10,000 bail.

In 2011, he was sentenced to a year in a drug program and placed on five years probation.

He later admitted to violating probation while in a live-in rehabilitation program and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2015 for violating probation in a case involving heroin possession and possession of a firearm by a felon.