NEW CITY, N.Y. (AP)  -- A homeowner has been convicted of trying to stab a building inspector with a steak knife as the official probed possible code violations on his Rockland County property.

A jury found Russell Trojan guilty Thursday of attempted murder, assault and criminal weapons possession in the April 2007 attack on Jeffrey Meara.

Meara was slashed in the chest and hands as he photographed junked cars outside Trojan's house in Nanuet.

The 51-year-old Trojan is a former Nanuet school board candidate and local civic activist. He once spent several months in a psychiatric center, but a judge found him competent to stand trial.

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