Opinion ID: 1340542
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: a. the facts: incompetency

Text: The defendant, Henry Bias, was indicted in January, 1969 for the murder of his mother in October, 1968. Upon the motion of defense counsel, and after two physicians had found the defendant to be psychotic, the trial court in March, 1969, committed the defendant, for the first time, to a state mental hospital. This commitment was for an indefinite period, that is, until the defendant was determined to be competent to stand trial, as provided by W. Va. Code, 62-3-9, then in effect. [1] Less than six months later, the defendant's psychosis was in remission and the defendant was returned to the Logan County jail to await trial. Soon thereafter, the defendant's bizarre behavior while in jail prompted the jailer, joined by defense counsel, to move the court to have the defendant reexamined for competency. In March, 1970, the defendant was committed, for a second time, to a state mental hospital, until his competency to stand trial was restored. Between March, 1970 and February, 1971, the defendant escaped four times from the state mental hospital. During that period of time, the defendant's longest uninterrupted period of confinement in the state mental hospital was a little over a month. The defendant was, however, confined continuously in the state mental hospital for a little over a year, between February, 1971 and February, 1972. In February, 1972 the defendant escaped for a fifth time from the state mental hospital. Nearly a year and a half later, he was extradited from the State of Indiana when he was found there. In February, 1974, the trial court, upon the motion of defense counsel, committed the defendant, for the third time, to a state mental hospital, until his competency to stand trial was determined. Before he was examined by the staff at the state mental hospital, the defendant escaped for a sixth time. He remained free, his whereabouts unknown, for the next five and two-thirds years. In November, 1979, the defendant was arrested in Logan County when authorities found him there. The defendant was subsequently found by the trial court to be competent to stand trial, after a twenty-day psychiatric examination and a competency hearing, as provided by W.Va.Code, 27-6A-1 and 27-6A-2, as amended. In May, 1980, a jury found the defendant guilty of first degree murder of his mother, without a recommendation of mercy. The defendant soon thereafter began serving his life sentence in the state penitentiary. In March, 1983, this Court reversed the defendant's conviction based upon ineffective assistance of counsel. Trial counsel had presented very little of the psychiatric evidence and had otherwise failed to pursue an insanity defense as a reasonably qualified attorney would have done. See syl. pt. 5, State v. Bias, ___ W.Va. ___, 301 S.E.2d 776 (1983). After this reversal, the defendant was brought from the state penitentiary, in April, 1983, to the Logan County jail to await the new trial. He has remained in the custody of such jail since then. Thus, the defendant, in the nearly 18 years since his indictment, was confined at one point in a state mental hospital without interruption for a little over one year; was confined in state mental hospitals, with repeated interruptions, for a total of about nine more months; was free during escapes for almost eight years; was in the state penitentiary after conviction for nearly three years; has been in the county jail awaiting a new trial for over three and a half years; and spent the remainder of the time in the county jail awaiting the first trial.