Opinion ID: 2198338
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Psychiatric Examination of Witnesses

Text: The defendant asserts that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to order psychiatric examination of two witnesses for the State, David Young and Mark White, to determine their competency to testify. White testified at trial. Young committed suicide before the trial, and the State was permitted to use his deposition. A competent witness is one who has sufficient mental capacity to perceive, to remember and to narrate the incident he has observed and to understand and appreciate the nature and obligation of an oath. Ware v. State (1978), 268 Ind. 563, 565, 376 N.E.2d 1150, 1151. A witness is presumed to be competent. Gosnell v. State (1978), 268 Ind. 429, 430, 376 N.E.2d 471, 472. If evidence places the competency of a witness in doubt, the trial court should order a psychiatric examination. Mengon v. State (1987), Ind., 505 N.E.2d 788, 790. The trial court has wide discretion in disposing of motions for psychiatric examination and will be reversed only for manifest abuse of discretion. Stewart v. State (1982), Ind., 442 N.E.2d 1026, 1031; Gosnell, 268 Ind. at 430, 376 N.E.2d at 472. The defendant supported his request for psychiatric examination of David Young with an allegation of a previous suicide attempt and evidence that Young had made claims of Vietnam military service and combat flashbacks, further arguing that Young's army service, 1958-1961, was not contemporaneous with the history of United States troop involvement in Vietnam. As to his half-brother, Mark White, the defendant presented evidence that White had been involuntarily committed to a mental institution thirteen years prior to trial, that he had more recently committed himself to a mental health center, and that he made grandiose claims of employment by well-known public figures. Despite these contentions, we do not find sufficient facts in the record to demonstrate a manifest abuse of discretion by the trial court's refusal to order psychiatric examinations of these witnesses.