A prosecutor on Monday said he will request a mental health evaluation of a prison guard arrested after a standoff at an Arkansas prison Saturday, an unusual request planned partly because the man's behavior seemingly lacked "purpose."
Devonte Deshaun McCarter, 24, of Greenville, Miss., faces a felony charge of commercial burglary and a misdemeanor charge of impairing operation of a "vital public facility," according to criminal information that Thomas Deen, prosecuting attorney for the 10th Judicial District, mailed to court officials.
McCarter, armed with a rifle, refused to leave a guard tower at the Delta Regional Unit in Dermott for several hours despite a supervisor's orders, authorities said.
The standoff prompted two neighboring juvenile centers to lock down their facilities for about 10 hours and is the subject of an ongoing Arkansas State Police investigation.
No one was injured, no shots were fired and "at no time were any inmates endangered," Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves said.
"It does not appear [McCarter] wanted to harm himself or anyone else," Graves said. "Throughout the entire process, he never made any demands. We don't have any idea as to why he chose to hole up in the tower."
McCarter, hired as a corrections officer in May, is on paid leave pending the outcome of internal and police investigations, Graves said. A request for disciplinary records produced no documents, meaning McCarter had not been suspended previously because of his conduct.
The state police investigation is solely focused on "the failure of this individual to comply with orders to leave the tower," spokesman Bill Sadler said.
McCarter remained in the Drew County jail Monday evening.
McCarter made his first court appearance Monday afternoon before Ashley County District Judge Reid Harrod, but was not arraigned because court officials had not formally received the charges. Bail was set at $25,000.
McCarter's court-appointed attorney, Joseph Mazzanti, could not be reached for comment.
Deen is filing charges in Chicot County, where the prison is located. Deen's request for a mental health evaluation will be made after a judge is assigned to the case, he said.
Defense attorneys occasionally request mental health evaluations of their clients, who can be spared of criminal liability if it's determined they were mentally unfit at the time of the crime.
While prosecutors sometimes jointly sign such requests with defense attorneys, they rarely initiate them, said Rob Berry, a former prosecutor who is now a defense attorney based in Little Rock.
"There's nothing specifically that precludes it, but it is rare for the state to request [a mental health evaluation], especially this early," said Berry, who was not familiar with the facts of McCarter's arrest and did not comment directly on the case.
Deen, who said he couldn't remember independently making such a request, said it's "appropriate" this time because of the circumstances.
"Nothing [McCarter] did [Saturday] was remotely logical or sensible," Deen said. "He seemed to have no purpose. He had no demands. He engaged in just some bizarre, unexplainable conduct."
Such evaluations can look at a defendant's present-day mental health or the defendant's mental health at the time of the crime.
The present-day evaluation can suspend criminal proceedings if it's determined a defendant does not understand the charges, cannot assist counsel or is otherwise unfit to proceed.
The look-back tries to determine whether the defendant had the mental capacity to tell right from wrong and conform to the law. If not, that could lead to an acquittal "on a ground of mental disease or defect," according to Arkansas Code 5-2-312.
The Correction Department conducts criminal background checks and drug screenings on job applicants but does not require a mental health evaluation as part of the hiring process, Graves said.
If convicted of commercial burglary, McCarter would face between three and 10 years in state prison. Impairing operation of a vital public facility is a misdemeanor with a one-year maximum sentence.
Arkansas Code 5-39-201 says that a person commits commercial burglary if he or she "enters or remains unlawfully in a commercial occupiable structure of another person with the purpose of committing ... any offense punishable by imprisonment."
Deen said the second offense McCarter faces is the impairment of a vital public facility. Arkansas Code 5-38-205 defines jails and detention facilities as vital public facilities.
McCarter was assigned to work a 6 a.m.-to-6 p.m. shift Saturday inside the tower, Graves said. A supervisor instructed McCarter to leave the post -- Graves wouldn't say why -- and the guard refused, the spokesman said.
Graves referred all questions about the timeline to a state police statement. In that statement, police say they were called in about 11 a.m. and that McCarter surrendered shortly before 8 p.m.
Two neighboring juvenile facilities spent 10 hours on lockdown, meaning no staff or residents could exit the building, Arkansas Department of Human Services spokesman Brandi Hinkle said. The facilities are about 100 yards from the prison, Hinkle said.
The Delta Regional Center, about 70 miles southeast of Pine Bluff, opened in 1990 and has a capacity of 599 inmates, according to the Correction Department.
The prison was not locked down, Graves said.
State Desk on 10/04/2016