Woman Ruled Unfit for Trial in Mother’s Killing

An Anaheim woman is mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges that she murdered her 78-year-old mother here, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Paul Boland ordered that Victoria Jacobs Madeira, 43, be transferred to a state mental health facility for evaluation and treatment until she is competent to stand trial. Madeira has been jailed at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women since her arrest Oct. 14 outside the home of her mother, Roma Jaul Jacobs.

Investigators said Madeira and her 11-year-old son, armed with knives and handguns, took a taxi from Anaheim to La Canada Flintridge. At the house, Madeira stabbed her mother, then shot her while the older woman was pleading for help from sheriff’s deputies on the telephone, authorities said. Deputies who responded to the call found Madeira wearing military fatigues and her son attired in women’s clothing.

In January, a Juvenile Court judge heard testimony regarding the boy’s involvement in the slaying, then dismissed charges against him.

But Madeira was ordered to appear at a competency hearing in Pasadena Superior Court. At the hearing last Thursday, Boland ruled that Madeira was incapable of assisting in her own defense, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Patrick Stewart said.

Her mental condition had been evaluated by two court-appointed experts, but the judge ordered the reports sealed. His ruling referred to her present mental state, not her condition at the time of the slaying, Stewart said.

If she is determined to be competent at a later time, she will be returned to court to stand trial, the prosecutor said. A report on her progress must be given to the judge within 90 days.

Members of Madeira’s family have said that the woman has a long history of mental health problems but that they were unable to persuade authorities to institutionalize her.