Defendant Held for Medical Tests : Suspect in Slashing Says Memory Gone

A Van Nuys man accused of slashing a woman’s throat and leaving her for dead after he and a partner kidnaped, robbed and attempted to rape her, is not fit to stand trial because he suffers brain damage, a defense attorney argued Tuesday.

Kenneth John Ewing, 22, who was rolled into San Fernando Municipal Court in a wheelchair with head injuries and a broken right arm, was hurt July 28 when a stolen vehicle he was driving crashed into a tow truck during a high-speed police chase. Ewing was hurt so severely that he cannot conduct his defense in a rational manner nor can he remember any details in connection with the July 22 abduction of the woman, said his attorney, Michael Morse.

Judge Malcolm M. Mackey ordered Ewing held without bail while court-appointed doctors determine if he is fit to be arraigned Sept. 24.

Ewing and his passenger, Michael A. Dontas, 23, of Northridge, collided with the tow truck on Lankershim and Laurel Canyon boulevards during a chase through North Hollywood after police attempted to stop them for speeding, Sgt. Bob Farkas of the Los Angeles Police Department said.

The pickup truck in which they were riding was identified as one stolen from a woman left for dead near Gorman six days earlier, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald L. Smalstig said.

Dontas has been charged with receiving stolen property, Smalstig said.

Police are still seeking a second man in connection with the attack on the woman, which Smalstig said may have been racially motivated.

Ewing bears a tattoo identifying him as a member of a racist group, the White Aryan Resistance, Smalstig said. The victim, a Hispanic woman from the San Fernando Valley, told investigators that she was taunted with racial insults during the attack.

If Ewing is determined to be unfit to conduct his defense in a rational manner, he will be held in a state medical facility and examined every six months to determine his competence, Smalstig said. If he is determined to be permanently incompetent at the end of three years, he will be kept in a state hospital for the rest of his life, Smalstig said.