A New Stanton teenager accused of killing his mother and younger brother will undergo a competency evaluation to determine if he is able to stand trial, a judge ruled Thursday.
Defense attorney Wayne McGrew requested the evaluation for Jacob Remaley, 17.
“My client suffers under some mental health issues and he is continuing to suffer with those issues and work through them,” he said.
Remaley has been jailed since the shooting deaths of Dana Remaley, 46, and Caleb, 8, on Nov. 30, 2016. He is charged with two counts of first-degree homicide.
Investigators contend Remaley, then 14, awoke that morning, retrieved a gun from the top of a refrigerator and shot his mother as she slept. Police said Remaley then went to his brother’s bedroom and shot him.
“I think it’s appropriate that we have him evaluated to determine competency in light of a couple of things that have occurred since I last saw him,” Judge Christopher Feliciani said.
Remaley’s trial was put on hold until an evaluation report is available from a defense expert. District Attorney John Peck didn’t object to the evaluation and said after the brief hearing that he wanted to wait to see what it determined.
Remaley was not present in court. Members of his family were, McGrew said.
Feliciani ruled in November that Remaley would be tried as an adult. In an effort to move the case to juvenile court, McGrew argued that Remaley suffers from mental illness and was under the influence of a dominant personality, which told him to commit the murders.
A prosecution psychiatrist previously testified about doubts related to that diagnosis.
Feliciani ruled that it was unlikely Remaley’s mental illness would be adequately treated in juvenile court by the time he turned 21, when he would have to be released from custody.
McGrew said in January that he is investigating the possibility of a guilty but mentally ill plea.
