Tue, Dec 02 2008
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Published August 08, 2008 08:35 pm - A Jasper County judge ruled Friday that 15-year-old Thomas White is not mentally competent to stand trial as an adult for alleged offenses in a Joplin school-gun case, and ordered that he be committed to the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Circuit Judge David Mouton suspended criminal proceedings against White indefinitely and ordered the director of the department to report back to the court in six months as to the teen’s mental health and whether he is likely to be able to stand trial at some point in the future. Judge rules teen unable to assist in own defense By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com A Jasper County judge ruled Friday that 15-year-old Thomas White is not mentally competent to stand trial as an adult for alleged offenses in a Joplin school-gun case, and ordered that he be committed to the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Circuit Judge David Mouton suspended criminal proceedings against White indefinitely and ordered the director of the department to report back to the court in six months as to the teen’s mental health and whether he is likely to be able to stand trial at some point in the future. White was evaluated at the Western Missouri Mental Health Center in Kansas City by court order in June, and a psychiatric report was delivered to the court in late July that deemed the boy mentally unfit to understand legal proceedings and to assist in his own defense. The psychiatric report remains a closed portion of White’s court file and the specifics of his evaluation have not been made public. But a doctor and psychologist who saw him before the state’s evaluation in June reported to the boy’s public defenders that they believed an extended jail stay was wearing on his mental health and that he might be schizophrenic. White faces five felony counts from an Oct. 9, 2006, incident at Memorial Middle School, where he allegedly pointed an assault rifle in the direction of various students and teachers, fired a shot into a hallway ceiling, and repeatedly attempted to shoot the principal as he was being ushered out of the building. Police say the gun jammed because of an improperly seated ammunition clip, and no one was injured. White was 13 at the time. He has been held in administrative segregation at the Jasper County Jail since Dec. 2006. His mother has been unable to post a $250,000 bond to get him released while the criminal case is pending. Norma White was in the courtroom Friday as her son was brought in for the hearing before the judge. He stood with his public defender, Brett Meeker, without speaking while Mouton addressed similar motions from Meeker and Assistant Prosecutor John Nicholas seeking suspension of the criminal case for the purposes of mental-health treatment. 
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