A North Little Rock man who police say fractured his landlord's skull in a crowbar-swinging rampage will be institutionalized indefinitely after a doctor's finding that he cannot fully understand what's going on and likely will never get better.
The diagnosis of Charles James Warren was presented to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims on Thursday, about two weeks after the defendant turned 88. He faces 12 charges: five felony battery, assault and threatening counts, along with seven felony and misdemeanor criminal mischief charges.
Wearing a blue jail uniform, Warren was seated in a wheelchair next to his attorney Pat Aydellot, as the lawyer and deputy prosecutor Kelly Ward described Warren's condition for the judge.
Warren has appeared to grow more still at each hearing. Thursday, in his fourth appearance, he sometimes stared into space but would then cock his head and lean forward to listen to the proceeding.
He was much more animated at his first two court appearances, leaning forward and cupping an ear to listen or trying to lift himself up from his wheelchair with quivering arms when the judge entered the room.
Warren won't have to return to court until May, when the judge gets a report on his condition.
Warren will be committed into the custody of State Hospital officials, who have sought to have him transferred to a nursing home, but that's been denied by the judge out of security concerns because of the repeated findings by doctors that Warren continues to be a danger to himself and others.
Warren was initially committed in June for an extended stay after findings that he suffered from some kind of neurocognitive disorder.
State doctors, reporting on an exam conducted since his previous court date in August, showed that Warren has significant impairment, citing an instance in which he thought the year was 2003.
On another occasion, Warren described working at a Kroger grocery store for about 11 years until 2007, then repeated that story 10 to 15 times at random intervals, sometimes word for word, the report states.
The testing found he had cognitive deficits greater and "distinctly different" than would be caused by normal age-related decline.
Warren has been in custody for seven months since his February arrest at the Sarah Daisy Garden apartments.
Police found him waving a crowbar after he'd ambushed three women at the apartments with the tool; property manager Wilma Salazar suffered the most serious injuries.
She was barely conscious and bleeding heavily from the head when police arrived at the West Pershing Boulevard apartments where Warren had lived for about 20 years, according to police.
Warren broke out a window in the apartment office, struck at least six cars in the parking lot and threatened to kill another man on the property with the crowbar, police said.
Metro on 09/16/2016