Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. From left, Jennifer Barela, a public defender for the Second Judicial District, Karl Swanson, deputy district attorney of the ...

What happens during competency evaluation? An expert explains.

Criminal proceedings were suspended today in the case of a man accused of killing his wife, a Chula Vista woman who remains missing more than 18 months after disappearing from her home. The defense ...

Exterior of Whiting Forensic Hospital on the grounds of Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown. The maximum-security hospital has up to 78 beds for patients needing competency restoration. Credit: ...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Defense counsel for Ray Mata Jr. won’t seek a second opinion on his competency to stand trial in ...

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – It could be a major change in the power judges have to hold mentally incompetent criminal suspects in custody or force them to get help. That bill is a key part of the governor ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Every year judges order hundreds of Colorado defendants to undergo exams to determine whether they are mentally competent to stand trial. The use of such ...

A courtroom in San Diego’s Central Courthouse. Photographed on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Thomas Murphy/Times of San Diego) A woman accused of slashing the chest of a Starbucks employee is awaiting a ...

A judge Friday ordered a mental competency hearing for a man accused of attacking mostly homeless men in San Diego neighborhoods last year, resulting in four deaths. Jon David Guerrero, 40, is charged ...

As New Mexico lawmakers grapple with how to curb high crime rates, a court-affiliated working group has proposed legislation that would give judges more options in cases where defendants are deemed ...

SANTA FE, N.M. — In Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s final State of the State address, she made it clear public safety reform is an expectation and not a suggestion. It’s been the same expectation in ...