Doctor says Little Rock man can stand trial in father's 2000 stabbing death

More than four years ago, state doctors predicted Harold Isiah Charles II might never be sane enough to stand trial in his father's fatal stabbing, but now a doctor says he is competent to be tried and was in his right mind at the time of the slaying in 2000.

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Charles' attorneys, Bret Qualls and Lott Rolfe, told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson of Little Rock on Tuesday that they'll challenge those latest findings, but told the judge they'll need months to prepare.

Before Tuesday's hearing, Charles, 38, hadn't appeared in court since September 2012, when he was committed to the State Hospital.

Qualls said he and Rolfe need time to sort through three boxes of material left for them by Charles' previous attorney. They will also have to hire an expert on mental illness to examine Charles, Qualls said.

Johnson scheduled the next proceeding for Oct. 21.

Charles, wearing red pants and a white T-shirt, did not wear restraints and was guarded by a single police officer during Tuesday's hearing.

He has denied any involvement in his father's killing, stating that he made the story up for police so he could have a place to stay because he was homeless when he was arrested.

Charles has been in custody, either in jail or at the State Hospital, since his July 2009 arrest for threatening to beat his mother to death and to burn her house down. He made the threats in front of Little Rock police officers who had been called to Patricia Charles' Wedgeside Drive home to investigate a disturbance.

After his arrest, Charles admitted to fatally stabbing his father in 2000 and was charged with capital murder.

Harold Charles Sr., 45, was found dead from stab wounds to the neck in the living room of his Warren Drive home two days after Thanksgiving in 2000. His 2-year-old daughter was nearby, blood-spattered, dehydrated and wearing a dirty diaper.

Police believe he had been dead two days. His body and the toddler were discovered by his ex-wife, Patricia Charles, when she stopped to drop off their then-6-year-old son.

By September 2012, the younger Charles had gone through five mental evaluations. Doctors diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and said he could not be restored to fitness in any "reasonable time."

They said he presented a high risk of violence if allowed to return to an environment where he can obtain alcohol and drugs and in which his medication compliance is not monitored. His most recent prescribed medications are the antipsychotic haloperidol; benztropine, an anti-tremor medication used to treat side effects of medication; and trazodone, an antidepressant.

In an interview in 2012 with a psychiatrist, Charles said that he was engaged in an ongoing battle with demons who were discouraging him from eating. He said food strengthens his "penance of fire" weapon that causes the demons to burn in hell, according to a 2012 report.

He told the doctor he was a former king of Egypt and that he believed his criminal charges would be dismissed if he could destroy all of the demons.

Voices in his head also caused him to remember that he had played football for the Dallas Cowboys and that he was a two-time Super Bowl champion who was known as Christian Amanpour, which is also his Egyptian king name, the report said.

In the latest report by Dr. Lindsey Wilbanks of the State Hospital, the forensic psychiatrist concurs with his predecessors that Charles has schizophrenia, but concludes that Charles' illness did not keep him from being able to tell the difference between right and wrong at the time his father was killed and that he was able to control himself and abide by the law at that time.

The 36-page report cites 16 years worth of medical records, including the prior mental-health reviews Charles has undergone as part of the criminal case, and includes a review of the police case file on the slaying.

In an April interview with Wilbanks, Charles told the doctor that he still hears voices but does not let them bother him or tell him what to do. He said that after he initially rejected his schizophrenia diagnosis, he's come to believe he has the disorder because the voices have caused him so much trouble.

Metro on 06/08/2016

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