TEXARKANA -- An Arkansas inmate accused of killing a female correctional officer has been found by mental health experts to be unfit to proceed to trial.
Tramell Mackenzie Hunter, 27, appeared Tuesday with Little Rock lawyer Ron Davis at a hearing before Miller County Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson.
Hunter is charged with capital murder in the Dec. 18 death of correctional officer Lisa Mauldin, who died after she was attacked in the kitchen of the Miller County jail. Hunter is also charged with battery of a peace officer for injuries suffered by correctional officer Damaris Allen shortly after Mauldin was attacked. The state is seeking the death penalty.
Johnson ordered a mental evaluation of Hunter earlier this year after Davis entered an innocent plea by reason of mental disease or defect. Stephanie Black, the prosecuting attorney for Miller and Lafayette counties, told the court that the psychologist who performed the evaluation of Hunter has moved to California since completing a fellowship in Arkansas at the State Hospital.
That doctor found that Hunter is not currently capable of assisting his lawyer with his defense, but the doctor expressed the opinion that further evaluation is needed, Black said. Davis said defendants found unable to assist their lawyers, and thus not fit to proceed, are typically ordered to a facility such as the State Hospital for 10 months in hopes that competency can be restored through drugs and other therapy.
However, Davis pointed out that while Arkansas law provides a mechanism for incompetent defendants to be treated with hopes of restoring competency, Hunter's case is different because he was already an inmate in the Arkansas Department of Correction at the time of the attacks on Mauldin and Allen.
Hunter was assigned to the Miller County jail as part of the Department of Correction's 309 program that allows certain offenders to serve their sentences in county jails in need of cheap labor.
Hunter has been serving a 15-year term for aggravated robbery and two counts of felony domestic battery. He was sentenced Feb. 22, 2011, as part of a plea bargain in Pulaski County.
Dr. Benjamin Silver, a staff psychologist at the State Hospital, said that Hunter appears to fall somewhere on the "schizophrenia spectrum" but that diagnosing individuals with certain disorders can require lengthy observation.
At the end of Tuesday's hearing, Johnson ordered that Hunter return to the State Hospital for further evaluation. Until a determination is made concerning Hunter's competency, the case against him in Miller County cannot move forward.
If found guilty of capital murder, Hunter faces death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. If found guilty of first-degree battery of a peace officer, Hunter faces 10 to 40 years or life in prison.
State Desk on 09/11/2017