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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
FARMINGTON, Utah (AP) -- Prosecutors are seeking two more mental evaluations for a 20-year-old Salt Lake City man with a history of mental illness who is accused of killing his father while they were hunting.
Benjamin Josef Gully, 20, is charged with murder in the shooting death of Jim Gully, 52. The victim was shot in the head with a shotgun while the two were duck hunting in a remote area between Farmington Bay and Great Salt Lake on Oct. 9.
Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson said Monday that he plans to seek the additional evaluations. He has received a report from defense psychiatrist Dr. Susan M. Mirrow that concluded that Gully "could not form the required intent to intentionally and knowingly kill his father."
In December 2004, Gully was found competent to stand trial after three evaluations. Now the issue is whether he had the ability, at the time of the shooting to know what he was doing.
Wilson said he is trying to get Gully's attorney, Fred Metos, to agree to two evaluations to be done -- one by a psychiatrist and the other by a psychologist.
Wilson said Gully's family wants to have him sent to the Utah State Hospital for the mental evaluations, but there is no room at the state hospital, so the evaluations would have to be done at the Davis County Jail where Gully has been held since he was arrested.
"We hope to get it done in a timely fashion before the trial and keep it on track," Wilson said.
The victim's wife, Janice Gully, has complained that her stepson is being kept in a jail cell instead of being sent to the state hospital, where, she said, he could get the help he needed.
She said last month that she had visited him several times, and, "I told him I loved him and forgave him. He apologized for stop taking his medication."
Benjamin Gully was hospitalized in 2003 for mental illness.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
