Phillip Garrido is ruled competent to stand trial in Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping

An El Dorado County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the man charged with kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and holding her captive for 18 years is competent to stand trial.

Phillip Garrido, who was also charged with rape, fathered Dugard’s two children while she was in captivity. His wife, Nancy Garrido, also faces charges in the case, which captured international attention when Dugard and her daughters were discovered in 2009 living in a ramshackle compound in the Garridos’ Antioch backyard.

A two-week jury trial on Phillip Garrido’s mental status was scheduled to begin on Feb. 28, but attorneys in the case agreed to allow Judge Douglas C. Phimister to determine Phillip Garrido’s competence instead.

To be able to stand trial, Phimister said, a defendant must be capable of understanding criminal proceedings and assist in his own defense.

Having reviewed reports from several psychologists who examined Phillip Garrido, Phimister ruled that the 59-year-old “is in fact competent to stand trial.” He also decided not to make those reports public.

Susan Gellman, Phillip Garrido’s attorney, had earlier expressed concern about her client’s mental state. But after several psychologists examined Phillip Garrido and filed their reports, she said she was confident that he was competent to stand trial — at this point.

Gellman said after the hearing Thursday that Phillip Garrido is currently assisting in his defense, “but competency is a fluid thing. I would be anxious to move the case along. … Several different doctors saw him, and they all agreed that he was mentally ill. But they had different labels for it.”

Gellman agreed to let the judge decide and allow the case to move forward, she said, because the Garridos were concerned in part about the well-being of Dugard, now 30, and her children if they had to testify during the competency proceedings.

Nancy Garrido “doesn’t want them to have to testify,” Stephen Tapson, Nancy Garrido’s attorney, said after the hearing. “If there’s a trial, it would be impossible for them not to be here. Obviously, that’s part of the play.”

The Garridos are being held in El Dorado County Jail and for the past year have contacted each other through regularly scheduled phone calls. But responding to the concerns of jail officials, Phimister also permanently cut those calls off Thursday, although he will allow the couple to continue writing each other.

Gellman and Tapson agreed to the change in communication.

Phillip Garrido “was allegedly talking to [Nancy] on the phone, trying to control her and calling the D.A. bad names and so on,” Tapson said of the jailers’ assessment of their communication. “That’s just their characterization of what they think he meant. I disagree with it.”

Phillip Garrido’s control of Nancy Garrido, however, is at the heart of her defense, Tapson said. “But for Phil she would not have done this, because he had her under his thumb, and she submitted … willingly.”

Asked by reporters how his 55-year-old client is faring 18 months after being arrested, Tapson said Nancy Garrido is “hanging in there and still misses the kids, misses Jaycee.” Dugard was 11 when she was abducted, and “they had a family relationship at the end of all the horror.”

The Garridos are scheduled to be back in court at the end of the month. Phillip Garrido is scheduled to be arraigned. Nancy Garrido has already pleaded not guilty.

maria.laganga@latimes.com