Ex-Reporter Ruled Incompetent to Stand Trial in Slaying of Boy, 2

A former radio reporter who confessed to killing a 2-year-old boy was judged incompetent to stand trial Wednesday and committed to a mental hospital.

Steven Diddy, 26, will remain at Atascadero State Hospital until officials believe he is mentally sound, ordered Superior Court Judge Wayne R. Ellison, who based his decision on reports from two court-appointed psychiatrists.

One of them, Stephen Miles Estner, said he believes that the former reporter for KMPH-FM and KFRE-AM radio in Fresno falsely confessed to the murder because he suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia.

Diddy was arrested in October after he told police that he killed Matthew Moorby in February. He later recanted, saying that he had confessed so authorities would take him into custody where he would be safe from an undisclosed threat.

“He is incompetent and he is psychotic. He’s got no control over what he says,” said Diddy’s lawyer, Richard Berman. “He says silly things, and he says crazy things.”