Judge Renews Mental Incompetence Ruling in Slaying of Guard

A prison inmate accused of fatally stabbing one guard and wounding four others at the federal maximum security prison in Lompoc was declared mentally incompetent Thursday to stand trial.

In a curious twist, defendant Roy C. Green defied his own lawyers, siding with federal prosecutors in insisting that he was competent to face trial in the death penalty case.

It was the second time in four years that U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in Los Angeles ruled that Green could not be tried because of mental issues.

Speaking from the bench Thursday, Marshall said there is little doubt that Green understands the nature of the charges against him and the possible consequences if he is found guilty.

But in a brief written order, the judge concluded that he suffers from a mental disorder or defect rendering him incapable of assisting his counsel at trial. The ruling followed a series of lengthy hearings that included testimony by several mental health professionals,

At a hearing in December, defense attorney Judy Clarke told the judge that Green believed his defense team was in collusion with the government. She said he had a psychotic condition characterized by paranoid delusions.

Green, 48, of Los Angeles, insisted in a letter to the judge that he was competent and asked to be allowed to represent himself at trial.

Meanwhile, Assistant U.S. Atty. Patricia Donahue, who heads the prosecution team, argued that Green’s only mental defect was a personality disorder that didn’t reach the threshold of incompetence.

In her ruling Thursday, Marshall ordered that Green be sent back to a federal Bureau of Prisons psychiatric facility for evaluation and treatment until such time as he is found competent. She scheduled a hearing in February for a progress report on his status. Marshall last found Green mentally incompetent in 2001. He was sent to a federal medical facility in Butner, N.C., where he was treated for more than a year before doctors declared him recovered.

Green is accused of fatally stabbing corrections officer Scott Williams, 29, and seriously injuring four other Lompoc guards with two makeshift knives. At the time of the slaying, he was serving time for drug dealing and for assaulting officers at a prison in Wisconsin.

When the current charges were filed against Green in 1998, it was the first death penalty case brought by the U.S. attorney’s office in nearly 50 years. Since then, one death penalty case has gone to trial and several others are pending.