Trial paused after defendant punches his own attorney
PORT ORCHARD – Trial proceedings for a Bremerton man in Kitsap County Superior Court were interrupted Thursday afternoon when the defendant ran across a court room and punched his own attorney in the head as he was delivering opening statements to a jury. The man, 29-year-old James Aaron Adkison, was immediately tackled to the ground by a corrections officer and hauled out of the room.
The assault occurred just a few feet away from jurors – who had just been seated at the outset of an unusual trial to determine whether Adkison is competent to stand for trial – as Adkison’s defense attorney, Tom Weaver, was addressing them.
Said Weaver just a few moments after the incident: “The punch was painful, but I don’t think there’s any injury. I’m a little more emotional than physically hurt.”
A Kitsap Sun reporter was in the court room at the time of the assault and saw Adkison stand up from his chair at the defense table, bolt across the room and strike Weaver, who had been turned away from his client. Adkison was secured by officers, and Judge Kevin Hull sent jurors out of the room briefly and then had them return before he apologized to them for what they had witnessed and dismissed them until Monday morning.
Said Hull: “Mr. Weaver, I hope you’re OK, I hope you don’t wake up too sore tomorrow, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you are. It was a pretty solid strike. You might not be feeling it now because of the adrenaline, but you might be feeling it tomorrow, so I hope you’re OK.”
Adkison has regularly interrupted proceedings in court with non sequiturs and rambling statements but mostly sat quietly as Weaver was speaking to jurors, describing his client as a person unfit to proceed to trial.
“I’m going to submit to you, based upon the evidence that you’re going to hear, that he has so little comprehension of the legal proceedings that are going on, he can’t even understand what his options are in trying to process the legal system that he finds himself in,” Weaver told jurors a few minutes before the assault.
Adkison was arrested in March last year for an attack on a couple in a home in Bremerton and was charged with a count of first-degree assault and a count of first-degree burglary.
In a competency assessment, a psychologist at Western State Hospital found in April 2022 that the man lacked “the mental organization, mood stability, reality orientation and behavioral control needed to understand the nature of the proceedings against him and assist in his own defense.” Adkison, the doctor noted, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder and had been previously hospitalized at Western State. The psychologist noted that Adkison had a history of slow response to treatment but assessed that restoration to competency within the time period permitted by law would be “reasonably likely,” and Adkison was ordered to undergo competency restoration treatment.
Following two periods of restoration treatment, another psychologist wrote in an evaluation in August of this year that, “Based on the information available, there is not a substantial probability that further competency restoration treatment would significantly abate his symptoms to the point that he would regain the requisite capacities to proceed to trial. An additional period of competency restoration is not recommended at this time,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors contend that there is more to Adkison and sought the trial in an attempt to move forward with criminal proceedings against the man. “How Mr. Adkison appears is largely dependent on the audience with which he is interacting,” deputy prosecuting attorney Jason Ruyf argued during proceedings earlier Thursday.
Jurors in a competency trial would be expected to assess not whether Adkison is guilty or not guilty of charges stemming from the 2022 incident, but rather whether he is competent to go to trial, a status that refers to a person’s ability to understand the charges against them and assist their attorney in their own defense.
In the incident underlying the proceedings this week, police were called in early morning hours of March 11, 2022, to a home on Perry Avenue after the victims, a couple, reported that someone broke into their house and assaulted them, according to court documents. A man reported that he had been sleeping in his bedroom with his wife when he awoke to find the suspect – later identified as Adkison – striking him and his wife in the head and face with a blunt object.
The male victim grabbed a gun to shoot the other man and fired a warning shot. After a struggle, Adkison took off into the house and was found hiding in a shower.
Both victims suffered severe facial lacerations and head trauma, a Bremerton police officer wrote in a report, noting that it appeared that they had been struck in the head and face with a hammer.