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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Salt Lake City man accused of killing three people who were boarding at his mother's house, including a 2-month-old girl, has been declared incompetent to stand trial, prosecutors announced Monday.
Two separate doctors came to the same conclusion about Alexander Hung Tran, 33, who is accused in the September 2015 triple slaying, said Salt Lake County deputy district attorney Matt Janzen.
Tran will be sent to the Utah State Hospital for more evaluations while hearings in case are put on hold, the Deseret News reported (http://bit.ly/2gA4SwM ). Janzen did not say what Tran was diagnosed with.
"We're waiting for the state hospital to give us a report on is he restorable, and what will they be able to do and how long that will take," Janzen said.
A police report from the case revealed that Tran had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia a few months before the killings.
He spent one month at a university psychiatric ward in the summer of 2015, said Tran's lawyer, Ralph Dellapiana.
Authorities have said Tran shot and killed 2-month-old Lyrik Poike, her 50-year-old grandmother Heike Poike, and an acquaintance, 28-year-old Dakota Smith.
Prosecutors have said Tran acknowledged the shootings when officers found him with a gun last year, but said his mother was at fault because she owned the house and had asked for the boarders to leave. The mother said she knew nothing of the deaths until after the killings, authorities have said.
Tran is scheduled to be back in court on Feb. 27 for another hearing to discuss the progress of his treatment.
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
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