TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A judge has ordered a man who faces first-degree murder charges in the 2004 stabbing of his girlfriend to keep taking anti-psychotic drugs so he will be competent to stand trail.
Thomas Shane O'Hagan has been in and out of mental hospitals since he was charged with the killing. Defense attorney Mary Kay High has argued that O'Hagan's constitutional rights are not being respected.
"An individual does have a constitutional protection and liberty interest in not having anti-psychotic drugs administered to him," she said.
High said the anti-psychotic drugs could permanently damage his muscles and make him grow breasts. She said he still hallucinates and has delusions after months of medications.
O'Hagan, who is in the Pierce County Jail, is taking the drugs under protest.
Deputy Prosecutor Pat Oishi argued that the only time O'Hagan has improved and given the state hope of trying him has been when he's on medication. Oishi said doctors could watch O'Hagan closely for the side effects while they give him medicine that will improve his health and allow the county to try him.
Superior Court Judge Beverly Grant ruled in favor of prosecutors and ordered O'Hagan to go to Western State Hospital for another three months of treatment and evaluation.
The body of Maria Flesher, 29, was found crammed into a 2-by-4-foot storage container at the suburban home she shared with O'Hagan. The body, which was covered in a green shower curtain, bore a number of stab wounds in the chest as well as cuts on the hands and arms that indicated she had tried to defend herself, prosecutors wrote in court papers.
O'Hagan's trial has been postponed as medical experts have evaluated and treated him. He currently has no trial date.
Experts say he has psychotic disorder as well as substance addictions. First, doctors said he was competent to stand trial and could understand what was going on and help his attorneys defend him. Next they said they weren't sure. Then they said he wasn't competent anymore.
