Inmate Faces Trial in Deaths of Cellmates : Jury Decides Suspect Is Competent to Aid Defense

Jerry Thomas Pick, accused of killing two Orange County jail cellmates in separate incidents last January, was found competent to stand trial by an Orange County Superior Court jury Thursday.

Pick, a 24-year-old transient, had told the jury that he considers himself competent, but his attorney, Milton C. Grimes, argued that Pick is not capable of helping his attorneys prepare a defense to the two murder charges.

However, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown called Thursday’s jury decision “a good verdict.”

Brown believes that Pick hurt his cause with his own testimony.

“He could testify in such great detail about so many things, I think the jurors could see that he knows what he’s doing,” Brown said.

Grimes, upset about the jury verdict, asked Judge Leonard H. McBride to consider a motion for a new competency hearing when the parties return to court today.

Pick has been in jail since December, when he was caught trying to steal a purse from an elderly woman at a Target store in Santa Ana. Pick testified that he tried to grab the purse from “a little old bowlegged lady.”

Pick is charged with murder in the death of John Franklin Wilcox, 71, found dead in his cell Jan. 14, 1987, and Arthur Oviedo, 25, found strangled to death in his cell Jan. 31, 1987. Pick was a cellmate of each.

The original autopsy reported that Wilcox died of natural causes. But a new autopsy was conducted after Oviedo was found dead and Pick became an immediate suspect. The second autopsy showed that a beating had contributed to Wilcox’s death.

Pick refused to discuss either incident during his testimony at his competency hearing, despite many questions from prosecutor Brown.

Also damaging to Grimes’ bid to have Pick found incompetent was testimony from two forensic psychiatrists who said they considered Pick competent to stand trial.

For Pick to be found incompetent, Grimes had to convince jurors that Pick did not understand the nature of the charges against him and could not aid his attorney in preparing a defense.

Pick testified that he is on trial for murder because he is a victim of a plot by the Central Intelligence Agency. Grimes said he cannot learn from Pick what happened to the two victims because Pick continues to stick to his CIA version of events.