Judge: Accused stabber is unfit for trial
NORRISTOWN » A 26-year-old Pottstown man remains incompetent to proceed to trial on charges he stabbed his mother in 2013 and will remain at a mental health facility for treatment, according to a judge’s order.
Montgomery County Judge Thomas C. Branca ruled that Jason James Payne will be transferred to an inpatient bed at Natale North, a secure psychiatric treatment unit located on the grounds of the Norristown State Hospital. Payne, formerly of the 100 block of East Third Street, previously was treated in another area of the state hospital.
“After the most recent review of the case he remains incompetent to proceed and in order to facilitate continued treatment he is being moved to the Natale North program which is a program on the grounds of the state hospital,” Montgomery County Assistant Public Defender Gregory Nester, chief of the pretrial unit, explained on Wednesday.
Branca said Payne “shall remain at Natale North until fur-
ther order of this court.” Branca also ordered that a new competency evaluation be performed and a report provided to the judge, Nester and Assistant District Attorney Cara McMenamin within six months.
After previous evaluations, judges found that Payne is in further need of inpatient care. A judge periodically receives reports from Payne’s treating doctors and then decides if hospitalization is still required.
A psychiatrist previously determined that Payne is unable to participate in his defense and that in order for him to regain competency
he needed to be hospitalized for treatment.
Those deemed incompetent are unable to understand the nature of the charges against them or to assist in their defense. Payne is receiving mental health treatment with the goal of becoming competent to address his charges in court.
Payne spent months in the county jail after his arrest while awaiting court action before being transferred to the state hospital when a bed became available for him there in 2015.
Payne is currently awaiting trial on charges of aggravated and simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person and possessing an instrument
of crime in connection with a 7:45 p.m. Dec. 18, 2013, incident during which he allegedly attacked his mother, Pamela, with a foot-long butcher knife inside the East Third Street home they shared.
Payne, according to a criminal complaint, walked out of the kitchen of the home he lived in with his mother and younger brother and sister with the knife and when his mother asked what he was doing, he allegedly uttered, “Going to cut some meat.”
Pamela Payne, according to witness accounts contained in court documents, reportedly told Payne that he “did not have the right to scare people in the house.” While the woman turned away from her son, Payne
allegedly stabbed her in both arms while she tried to stop him, according to witnesses.
After being stabbed, the victim and Payne’s two siblings ran to a bathroom and Payne attempted to open the bathroom door but was unsuccessful, according to court documents. When Payne went to another room, his mother and siblings ran from the home and sought refuge at a neighbor’s home, according to the criminal complaint.
Payne’s mother suffered four wounds to her upper body, including to her rear right shoulder, and initially was treated in a Goodwill Ambulance but was eventually flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital near Allentown where she underwent surgery,
according to police.
In an interview with police, Payne stated he was at home with his mother and juvenile siblings and “he stated that there was no problem between he and his mother that precipitated the stabbing,” according to the arrest affidavit filed by Pottstown Detective Mark Wickersham.
“The defendant stated that he got up and walked into the kitchen, grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed her. The defendant believes that he stabbed her three times. He recalled stabbing her in her right side. The defendant described the knife as being about a foot long,” Wickersham alleged.
Payne allegedly told police that he dropped the knife onto the couch and
then he walked upstairs to his sister’s room, and changed out of the bloodstained clothes.
“After changing his clothes, the defendant went downstairs and waited for police,” Wickersham wrote in the criminal complaint. “When the police arrived, the defendant stated that he did what they told him to do.”
Payne also is awaiting trial on a charge of criminal trespass in connection with a separate alleged incident at another home in the first block of East Third Street on Oct. 22, 2013, according to court records. Payne also was found to be incompetent to proceed to trial in connection with that incident during which he was accused of illegally entering a neighbor’s residence.