A court-ordered mental health evaluation found Daniel Moreno Gama eligible for diversion, but his own defense attorney passed on the option at Wednesday's hearing — a notable pivot from a defense that has consistently framed the case as a mental health crisis from the start.

Daniel Moreno Gama, the 20-year-old Texan charged with throwing an explosive device at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's San Francisco home, appeared in court Wednesday for a status hearing — and left with a legal off-ramp on the table that his own lawyer won't take.

A court-ordered mental health evaluation report, filed ahead of the July 8 hearing, found Moreno Gama eligible for mental health diversion. Deputy Public Defender Diamond Ward told the court the defense is not pursuing that option "at this time."

"Daniel needs care and not to be caged," Ward said, per NBC Bay Area. "He is a young, 20-year-old who got lost. And I think the DA's false narrative and oversimplification of the facts of this case is going to come to light."

Moreno Gama remains in custody on federal and state charges including attempted murder and arson. Prosecutors allege surveillance images show him throwing an explosive device at the gate of Altman's home in the early morning hours of April 10, then proceeding to OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters to attempt further damage.

Mental health has been the defense's public-facing frame since day one — Moreno Gama's family spoke to that framing after the arrest, and he entered a not-guilty plea in May. Declining to convert that narrative into an actual diversion motion, while still invoking it loudly in open court, is a tactical choice that raises more questions than it answers. Diversion would remove the case from the criminal track entirely; holding the option in reserve may signal confidence in a different outcome at trial, or an intent to negotiate.

What's unconfirmed: the specific reason Ward is holding the diversion option back rather than filing it now. The next scheduled hearing will be the next test of which direction the defense actually moves.