KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) - An Idaho man found to be criminally insane nearly a decade ago has been ruled mentally fit to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge.
Police say that in 2003, Harley Robert Park, who was living and working at a golf course, killed the owner of the course by repeatedly punching and kicking him in the head while wearing steel-toed work boots.
But he was found unfit to stand trial and committed to State Hospital South. Earlier this month, doctors determined that Park, 37, was able to assist in his defense, and he was released. Authorities immediately took him into custody to face the murder charge.
Public defender Douglas Nelson said he will contest the assessment made by doctors that Park can understand and assist with his defense.
“For the last 11 years, he’s been determined to be incompetent to understand the proceedings against him and stand trial,” Nelson told the Idaho Mountain Express (https://bit.ly/1z1GfwX ) in a story on Friday. “I’m going to have to challenge this because in my opinion he still doesn’t get it.”
Krista Howard, a deputy attorney with the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, has been assigned as special prosecutor. Officials there declined to comment to The Associated Press on Friday.
The owner of the course, 61-year-old Lynn Stevenson, was an active community member, airplane pilot and former manager of the Gooding Airport. The killing shook the local community.
A 2005 report described Park’s “concrete way of thinking means he sees himself as right, good and innocent and that everyone else is wrong, evil and guilty.”
A judge in 2006 determined Park to be “dangerously mentally ill.”
Park is being held in the Elmore County jail in Mountain Home with a trial date set for Dec. 8. The trial location hasn’t been determined.
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Information from: Idaho Mountain Express, https://www.mtexpress.com
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