Judge Declares Murder Defendant Incompetent

By D.C. Witness Staff - June 18, 2020
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | stabbing | Suspects | Victims |

A DC Superior Court judge declared a murder defendant incompetent to stand trial.

Alisa Randall is charged with second-degree theft and the second-degree murder of Ronald Jones. Randall allegedly stabbed Payne on the 1300 block of Euclid Street, NW on July 15, 2019.

Randall’s competency to stand trial was last evaluated on April 17 at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, DC’s psychiatric institution. While her doctor deemed Randall competent, the defense argued that her progress has plateaued and she still possesses great deficits in rationality and role identification in the courtroom.

Randall’s defense called for a suspension of the case on the grounds that she likely will not show substantial progress or competency within the foreseeable future.

However, the prosecution and Judge Neal Kravitz agreed that Randall could eventually become competent with the right medication and mental services.

In previous hearings, the defense and prosecution located a point of contention between a Supreme Court decision in Jackson v. Indiana and a local DC statute. The decision and the statute offer somewhat differing interpretations of the amount of time given to a defendant in order to witness substantial improvement in competency to stand trial.

The prosecution and defense also disagreed on how long Randall’s next restorative period should be. The defense argued that Randall should be evaluated in a month, while the prosecution proposed that Randall be evaluated after six more months at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, DC psychiatric institution.

Judge Kravitz eventually decided to re-evaluate Randall’s competency in two months. Randall will remain in St. Elizabeth’s in the meantime.

Randall is scheduled appear in court again on Aug. 14, when Judge Kravitz will further evaluate her competency.