VENTURA : Shooting Suspect Unable to Stand Trial

For the second time in less than a year, a Ventura man charged with shooting a teen-age neighbor has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Brian Adams, 21, will be sent to a state hospital until it is determined that he is capable of helping to defend himself against charges of attempted murder. Adams was found competent to stand trial last year after a three-month hospital stay, but his condition has since deteriorated, Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. ruled Friday.

Adams is charged with attempted murder, burglary and use of a firearm in the January, 1994, shooting of Kevin Natale, now 15. Kevin was left paralyzed after a gunman forced his way into the teen-ager’s Dolphin Court home and shot him with a 9-millimeter handgun.

Adams disliked Kevin because the youth had accidentally hit his car with a baseball while playing catch with his stepfather several months before the shooting, according to court testimony.

Campbell’s competency ruling hinged on whether Adams can effectively assist his attorney, George Eskin, in preparing and carrying out a defense. A psychologist who has worked on the case for several months testified that Adams wants to plead guilty so that he can go to prison and commit suicide.

Although Adams understands the criminal proceedings and can recount in detail the events related to the shooting, his desire to plead guilty is not based on rational thinking, psychologist Katherine Emerick testified. Campbell agreed.

“The decisions he’s making are being driven by a mental condition he has no control over,” the judge ruled.

Hospital officials said Adams’ condition improves with medication, but he has refused to take it. If he is medicated while at the state hospital, he should regain his mental competency fairly quickly, Eskin said.