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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Judge again considers if man competent for trial
At least the fourth hearing for suspect in 2001 killings
A King County judge is weighing, for at least the fourth time, whether the Pierce County man accused of killing four people in Des Moines in 2001 is competent to stand trial.
Leemah Carneh has been charged with four counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of Evergreen High School cheerleader Josie Peterson, 17; her boyfriend, Taelor Marks, 17; and his grandparents, Richard Larson, 63, and Jane Larson, 64, at the Larsons' home.
Carneh, 23, has undergone three long mental-health evaluations at Western State Hospital since his arrest.
He was found competent to stand trial twice in 2002; he was found incompetent once the year before.
In a hearing before Judge Michael Spearman, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Carneh was delusional and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
At issue is whether Carneh is able to discuss the "core issues" of his case with his attorneys "in a reality-based fashion," attorneys said. Four doctors who testified about their evaluations of Carneh disagreed on the answer.
Spearman said in a court hearing Monday that he will issue a written decision in a week to 10 days' time. If Carneh is found incompetent, he will likely be civilly committed to Western State Hospital.
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