Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DUCHESNE — A man who stabbed a classmate at Duchesne High School and hit his own sister with a hammer in separate incidents was supposed to be sentenced Monday.
Questions about Leland Patrick King's mental competency, however, have put his sentencing in both cases on hold.
King, 19, pleaded no contest in December to aggravated assault on school premises, a second-degree felony; and aggravated domestic violence assault, a class A misdemeanor. Two other misdemeanor charges were dismissed under the terms of a deal with Duchesne County prosecutors.
Judge Samuel Chiara accepted the deal after finding that King was competent to proceed in the cases based on a report from one mental health professional. A second competency evaluation had been conducted, but the report had not been submitted to Chiara when he accepted King's pleas, court records show.
"It kind of fell through the cracks," defense attorney Bill Morrison said Monday, taking responsibility for the oversight. "We worked out a deal based on the first evaluation and based on my conversations with Leland."
The second evaluator, whose report was filed in January, found that King was incompetent, Morrison said. Based on that finding, Chiara postponed King's sentencing Monday and ordered him to undergo a third competency evaluation.
On May 14, King and a 17-year-old classmate got into a physical altercation on the Duchesne High School football field after a name-calling incident during gym class.
The teacher and other students separated the pair and both were told to report to the office, charging documents state. King, who was 18 at the time, went into the locker room to change, followed by the 17-year-old, whose name has not been released.
Inside the locker room, King stabbed the other student three times, breaking a bone in the victim's arm and causing one of his lungs to collapse, court records show.
In August, while out on bail in the stabbing case, King assaulted his older sister during an argument over farm chores, according to charging documents. The woman told deputies King grabbed and pushed her during the argument, then picked up a nearby hammer and struck her in the leg, causing her to collapse.
King's mother has said that her son has a diminished mental capacity and has a musculoskeletal disorder that makes him physically weaker than other people his age. Those disabilities made King a target for bullying by as many as seven Duchesne High students, including the teen who was stabbed, according to his mother.
King is due back in court April 20.
