Judge: Man is mentally competent for trial in 2 shootings
Published 12:38 pm Wednesday, June 5, 2019
(AP) — A Mississippi man accused of killing two women on the same night has been ruled to be mentally competent to stand trial.
News outlets report Hinds County Circuit Judge Faye Peterson issued the ruling Tuesday for 25-year-old Zebulum James.
Authorities say James fatally shot Suzanne Hogan at a gas station in northwest Jackson in November 2015. They say James then shot 49-year-old Kristy Lynn Mitchell in a restaurant parking lot in Ridgeland. Mitchell died at a hospital.
A private psychiatrist found James suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia and couldn’t understand court proceedings or rationally communicate with his attorney.
Hogan’s father, Art Hogan, told the Clarion Ledger that his wife fainted when told James would go to trial. He says they’re “very relieved.” The trial is set for November.