A Hardin County man has been found competent to stand trial for the murder of a fellow employee at KFC/Taco Bell restaurant in Elizabethtown.
Hardin Circuit Judge Ken Howard ruled Monday morning that Joshua Ratliff is competent to stand trial. Ratliff is charged with shooting Ryan Birse nine times February 25 inside the restaurant.
Howard heard testimony August 4 from numerous sources at Ratliff’s nearly five-hour competency hearing.
In his six-page ruling, Howard wrote Ratliff “has the capacity to appreciate the nature and consequences of these proceedings and the capacity to participate rationally in his own defense.”
Dr. Douglas D. Ruth, a psychiatrist from Lexington, was hired by the defense. Dr. Ruth met with Ratliff twice for about six hours, March 25 and July 5 at the Hardin County Detention Center. He has said Ratliff “would not be able to effectively go through the proceedings.”
Howard noted that during a 21-day evaluation at Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in LaGrange, Ratliff underwent a series of tests and evaluations and “the court finds that the comprehensive nature of the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center evaluation is to be given considerable weight over the more limited evaluation of Dr. Ruth.”
Ratliff’s attorney C. Wesley Durham had filed a motion to use insanity as Ratliff’s defense.
Ratliff is charged with murder, first-degree wanton endangerment of a police officer, first-degree wanton endangerment and first-degree fleeing or evading police in a motor vehicle. If convicted of murder, he could be sentenced to life in prison. His other charges are punishable by one to five years in prison, if convicted.
He is scheduled for a court appearance at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Source: NE
You must be logged in to post a comment.