Hayes will continue stay at Dix: He meets the legal definition of being mentally ill, judge decides.

Byline: Dan Galindo

Sep. 28--Michael Hayes will appeal a judge's ruling yesterday that he should spend another year at a state psychiatric hospital, his attorney said last night.

Judge Steve Balog ordered that Hayes, who killed four people and wounded five others in a 1988 shooting spree in southern Forsyth County, must remain at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh for another year.

Karl Knudsen, Hayes' attorney, said he was "bitterly disappointed" and blasted Balog's ruling, saying that it showed a "gross abuse" of medical terms to find that Hayes still has a mental illness.

Knudsen had to persuade Balog that Hayes met one of two conditions for release: That he is not mentally ill or that he is no longer dangerous to others. He didn't prove either point, Balog ruled.

"Sometimes choices have to be made between doing what appears to be …