ORLANDO -- When Miami-Dade teenager Michael Hernandez saw the movie American Psycho, he identified with the obsessive-compulsive serial killer character, recognizing some of the same bizarre compulsions in himself, a defense expert testified in Hernandez's murder trial Monday.

So Hernandez adopted more of the character's compulsions, vowing to moisturize his skin every day and working to be devoid of emotions -- all part of his training to become a serial killer.

When Hernandez saw The Silence of the Lambs, the Hannibal Lecter character's expertise in psychology mirrored his own interest in that area. So he vowed to be more ''smart and sophisticated,'' psychologist Vanessa Archer testified.

When Hernandez saw the movie Halloween, he decided his first victim should be his own sister, just like the serial killer in that movie. And when he saw a movie about the 1978 mass suicide led by religious cult leader Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana, Hernandez's obsession with religion and the Bible convinced him he should start a cult and be a ``missionary serial killer.''

STRANGE COMPULSIONS

All of those decisions helped Hernandez explain to himself why he had so many strange compulsions, like counting his CDs every afternoon, eating a certain way at a certain time every day and staring at the grandfather clock each night.

''At some point, to explain all these behaviors he didn't understand, he believed he was going to become a serial killer and he needed to train to do it,'' Archer testified.

Hernandez's first and only victim, Southwood Middle School classmate Jaime Gough, had to be killed because he knew about the serial killer plan and might tell authorities, Archer said.

Hernandez's legal team acknowledges that he killed Jaime in February 2004, when both boys were 14, but contends he was legally insane at the time.

Hernandez understood that society thought his plan to kill people was wrong, but believed that God was on his side, Archer said. Even after he was arrested for Jaime's murder, he believed God was going to give him special powers so he could escape from jail.

''He's a boy whose fantasies blurred with reality,'' Archer said. ``The purpose of this was to create a new world as it was meant to be.''

Archer diagnosed Hernandez with delusional disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Her diagnosis differs from two other defense witnesses who say Hernandez suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. But all three agree the teen grew obsessed with becoming a serial killer, convinced that was what he was meant to be in life.

`DIDN'T ENJOY IT'

''Mr. Hernandez told me he had anticipated he would enjoy it and was surprised to find that he didn't,'' Dr. Steven K. Hoge, chief of clinical psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital in New York, testified.

Experts hired by the prosecution are set to take the stand on Tuesday to dispute the insanity diagnosis. They say he is mentally ill but doesn't meet the legal definition of insane.

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