Judge orders slaying suspect to state hospital
An Arkansas prison inmate accused of capital murder in the 2016 death of a Miller County correctional officer will receive treatment in the state’s mental hospital, a circuit judge ordered Tuesday.
Tramell Mackenzie Hunter, 28, allegedly killed Correctional Officer Lisa Mauldin with his bare hands in the kitchen of the Miller County jail Dec. 18, 2016.
Hunter is also charged with battery of a peace officer for allegedly causing serious injury to Correctional Officer Damaris
Allen shortly after inflicting the injuries to Mauldin that ended her life.
Hunter has been found incompetent because of issues concerning his mental health. When a defendant accused of a serious crime is deemed unfit to proceed, he or she is typically sent to the state hospital for treatment in hopes that competency can be restored and the case against them move toward a disposition.
But Hunter’s case is different because of his simultaneous status as a Miller County capital murder defendant and as an inmate with the Arkansas Department of Correction serving time for 2011 Pulaski County convictions for aggravated robbery and domestic battery.
At the time of the attacks on Mauldin and Allen, Hunter was assigned to the Miller County jail as part of the Arkansas Department of Correction 309 program, which allows certain offenders to serve their sentences in county jails in need of cheap labor. He was serving a 15-year term at the time of the attacks on Mauldin and Allen. Hunter shot his uncle and his mother and stole his mother’s car in 2010.
At a hearing in February, Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson discussed Hunter’s mental health dilemma with the Arkansas State Hospital Program Coordinator for Forensic Services. It was agreed then that Hunter would receive treatment and services to address his psychiatric problems while being housed in ADC’s Varner Unit.
But an Oct. 10 letter from a Department of Human Services psychiatrist noted a decline in Hunter’s mental state and an absence of treatment over the past eight months. At a hearing Tuesday before Johnson, Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Potter Barrett said that Hunter has been “seen every three days” while in the prison but that ADC staff have expressed a belief that Hunter is faking his psychotic symptoms and he has not received pharmacological therapies to treat his symptoms.
Hunter’s defense attorney, Ron Davis Jr. of Little Rock, objected to having the hearing at all as Hunter was not transported from his prison unit to the Miller County jail courtroom.
“My client’s not here,” Davis said. “I would object to these proceedings going forward without him present.” Johnson summed up the situation before issuing an order for Hunter’s transfer from ADC to the state hospital.
“The understanding the court and counsel had was that an attempt to restore competency would be undertaken at ADC, including medication, so he can hopefully stand trial,” Johnson said. “That has not happened.”
Possible malingering was addressed by the psychiatrist who conducted an evaluation of Hunter at ADC in September and who penned the Oct. 10 letter to Johnson. That psychiatrist recommended “inpatient observation and medication management.”
“Moreover, the possibility of malingering can be more confidently ruled out after a period of observation; although, a total of five evaluators have agreed that Mr. Hunter does not appear to be feigning symptoms of mental illness,” the Oct. 10 letter states.
Johnson signed a “Not fit to proceed commitment order” Tuesday. The order directs state hospital staff to report back to the court if Hunter’s competency is restored or if not restored within 10 months, to report whether the nature of Hunter’s mental disease is “of such a nature precluding restoration of fitness,” and if Hunter presents a danger to himself or others. Johnson scheduled the case for a status hearing Dec. 11.
Should Hunter be restored to competency and deemed fit to proceed, and if found guilty of capital murder, he faces death by lethal injection or life without the possibility of parole.