6-year-old girl's accused killer still incompetent for trial

6-year-old girl's accused killer still incompetent for trial

(Francisco Kjolseth, file photo)


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WEST JORDAN — Another year will pass before competency will again be reviewed for the man charged with kidnapping, assaulting and killing 6-year-old Sierra Newbold in 2012.

Terry Lee Black, who turned 45 this month, appeared briefly in court Thursday where 3rd District Judge Douglas Hogan said he remains incapable of facing the charges against him.

A new competency hearing was set for June 29, 2017, with another review Oct. 4, court officials confirmed. Until that time, Black will remain at the Utah State Hospital.

According to court filings entered prior to a competency review in December, Black has been diagnosed in the mental evaluation with borderline intellectual functioning, as well as a learning disorder, cognitive disorder and psychotic disorder. No specific details about those disorders were provided.

A make-shift memorial for Sierra Newbold set up in her neighborhood days after the 6-year-old's body was discovered in a canal near her West Jordan in June 2012. Terry Lee Black, a neighbor, has been charged with her murder but on Thursday was once again found incompetent to stand trail. (Photo: Jen Pilgreen, KSL News, file)
A make-shift memorial for Sierra Newbold set up in her neighborhood days after the 6-year-old's body was discovered in a canal near her West Jordan in June 2012. Terry Lee Black, a neighbor, has been charged with her murder but on Thursday was once again found incompetent to stand trail. (Photo: Jen Pilgreen, KSL News, file)

Black is charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense, as well as child kidnapping and rape of a child, first-degree felonies, in Sierra's abduction and killing. According to police, Black slipped in a sliding-glass door to the girl's West Jordan home on June 26, 2012, and kidnapped her. He is accused of carrying the girl off and sexually assaulting her before drowning her in a canal.

Black was arrested following a bank robbery in West Jordan three days later. In that case, he is charged with robbery and receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, second-degree felonies.

In August 2012, Black was also charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and two counts of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony, in connection with a separate abuse case involving a neighborhood girl between 2007 and 2009.

None of the three cases can advance unless Black is found competent to work with his attorneys to prepare his defense.

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