The man charged with fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy in Texas in a hail of gunfire was found mentally incompetent on Tuesday to stand trial and will be sent to a state mental facility, prosecutors said.
A district judge committed Shannon Miles, 31, to a state mental hospital after prosecutors found he was not competent to stand trial at this time. Miles was charged with capital murder, which is punishable by death, for killing Harris County sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney said.
State District Judge Susan Brown committed Miles, currently held at county jail, for 120 days for mental health professionals to evaluate and try to restore competency, a lawyer for Miles said.
“He is mentally ill. He suffers from schizophrenia and is episodically psychotic,” lawyer Anthony Osso said in a telephone interview from Houston.
He added he does not know when his client, who has not been formally arraigned due to his precarious mental health, will be transferred to the state mental health facility.
Goforth, 47, was fatally shot on Aug. 28 as he fueled a patrol car at a Houston-area gas station. Prosecutors said Miles emptied a 15-round handgun in the attack.
Miles spent four months in a mental hospital in 2012 after being declared incompetent to stand trial in a separate aggravated assault case, according to court documents.
At the time, Miles was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly beating up a man at a Salvation Army shelter in Austin over a TV remote control. The attack left the victim with a broken vertebrae, the documents showed.
Miles was declared mentally incompetent and sent to the North Texas State Hospital. He was later deemed mentally competent but the case was eventually dismissed when the victim could not be found.
The slaying of Goforth came as police handling of minority suspects has become a national issue. Miles is black and Goforth was white.
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said at the time of the incident the department assumed Goforth was a target because he wore a uniform, and linked the shooting to the anti-police rhetoric of the “Black Lives Matter” campaign.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-deputy-idUSKCN0VI1Q6
Hmm…white cop named go forth. Black guy a supposed mental case during black lives matter propaganda. Then there’s brown noser and hick man. Did I forget anyone. No, but they did. What was guys name and race he supposedly attacked at salvation army? Think i’ll google Osso. Or is that assole
HELL…… IM “MENTALLY INCOMPETENT”….. LEMME MAKE MORE AMMO!!!!!!!!
“LEMME MAKE MORE AMMO!!!!!!!!”
With or without your glasses?
I KNOW RIGHT? JILL CAN LOOK THE SCALES FER ME…………..
LOL… we can all sleep better knowing that… 🙄
Every one is then mentally incompetent.
Didn’t the Soviets declare people crazy for not accepting socialism?
And this is in the news to support the mental health screening agenda.
Somebody crack him outa that mental facility and hand him a rifle.
“He is mentally ill.”
Disagree.
The pig he killed and those who incarcerated & judged him are far more deranged & dangerous than he could ever be.
and how many times are we going to hear the name miles
whether first or last name and sometimes spelled with a y
probably not for awhile after this comment
If he’s mentally incompetent then I guess he’s not guilty. ..right?
Or maybe he’s competent cause he killed the right person…?
I don’t know anymore people’s.
It’s a free for all fkng freakshow now.
“Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said at the time of the incident the department assumed Goforth was a target because he wore a uniform, and linked the shooting to the anti-police rhetoric of the “Black Lives Matter” campaign.”
Ok. I’ll bite.
Just how did he “link” it?
Sounds more like kosher sausage links to me.
Race baiting is the only viable link seen here.