MOUNT VERNON — Mental-health experts have concluded that the man charged with killing six people in a Sept. 2 shooting rampage in Skagit County is currently incompetent to stand trial, a prosecutor says.
While the confidential Western State Hospital report has been sealed in Skagit County Superior Court, senior deputy prosecutor Erik Pedersen referred to its findings in briefs filed in the Isaac Zamora case.
Pedersen’s brief noted that the 28-year-old Zamora was unwilling or unable to cooperate in assessments during his recent hospitalization at the Pierce County hospital, the Skagit Valley Herald reported Wednesday. Pedersen added that hospital evaluators say Zamora can neither understand the charges against him nor assist in his own defense. They add that he shows signs of a psychotic disorder.
Zamora is charged with 20 felony counts, including six counts of aggravated first-degree murder, which could bring the death penalty. The dead included a sheriff’s deputy.
Zamora is currently in the Snohomish County Jail but Pedersen is asking the court to send him back to the hospital and allow psychiatrists to force anti-psychotic medication in an effort to restore his competency.
A competency hearing originally set for Monday has been postponed until Dec. 8, the Skagit County prosecutor’s office said Wednesday. No reason was given.
“Zamora’s level of function is unlikely to improve without the administration of anti-psychotic medication and because he has shown an unwillingness to cooperate in efforts to administer treatment, an order for involuntary treatment and anti-psychotic medication is requested,” the prosecutor’s brief said.
Hospital staff can force some medications through injection, according to Murray Hart, a psychologist and manager of forensic evaluations at Western State Hospital.
“The state has an overriding interest to make people competent and bring criminals to justice,” Hart said recently.
In his brief, Pedersen said the medication recommended by the hospital is “likely to render the defendant competent to stand trial and is medically appropriate” and added the medication was not likely to interfere with Zamora’s ability to assist his attorneys.
Zamora’s public defenders, Wesley Richards and Glen Hoff, have filed a brief that says, in part, they must be able to consult with their client “to uncover mitigating evidence to persuade the State that it should not seek the execution.”
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