Hearing Delayed for Floridian Who Killed 6-Year-Old

The court hearing to determine Lionel Tate’s future was postponed Monday after he wrote to a judge about voices in his head telling him to commit suicide.

The handwritten letter prompted acting Broward County Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus to schedule a Dec. 19 competency hearing, at least temporarily delaying proceedings that could end with Tate receiving up to a life sentence. Lazarus was set to start hearing evidence Monday on whether to revoke Tate’s probation for beating a 6-year-old playmate to death when he was 12.

Tate’s case garnered international attention in 2001 when he became the youngest American sentenced to life behind bars. His first-degree murder conviction for Tiffany Eunick’s death was overturned on appeal in December 2003, and he took a plea deal that allowed him to walk out of jail a month later.

But Tate, now 18, has spent the last seven months in jail after, authorities say, he robbed a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver at gunpoint for four pizzas. Since then, other allegations have piled up against Tate, including that he gave one of his friends a service revolver owned by his mother, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper.

In the letter sent to Lazarus, Tate complained that his attorney, Assistant Public Defender H. Dohn Williams, has been ignoring his requests for a psychiatric evaluation. “I stated to him before that I was hearing voices and that I wanted to kill myself,” Tate wrote. “I feel that my attorney doesn’t know my mental condition. He stated to me that I don’t have a problem.”

Tate wrote that his attorney is forcing him to accept a lengthy prison sentence. He then cited a Florida law related to competency proceedings, saying that it entitled him to a psychological evaluation.

Within a few hours of getting Tate’s letter, Lazarus appointed forensic psychologist Trudy Block-Garfield to evaluate him. Block-Garfield met with Tate over the weekend, but wasn’t available to testify Monday.

If Tate is found incompetent, he would undergo mental health treatment until he is restored to competency and can proceed with his case.

Tate’s initial murder conviction was overturned when the appellate court found that the trial judge should have ordered tests to check whether the teen was competent to stand trial.