High court hears appeal in Cape triple slaying case

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Death row inmate Andrew Lyons is mentally incompetent and never should have stood trial for killing three people, his attorney told the Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Lyons fatally shot former girlfriend Bridgette Harris, her mother Evelyn Sparks and his son with Harris, 11-month-old Dontay, in their Cape Girardeau home on Sept. 20, 1992.

"As to who shot these folks there is no question," said Fred Duchardt of Kearney, Lyon's attorney. "... The whole issue here is whether this guy had any wherewithal to assist in his defense."

Shortly after being charged with three counts of first-degree murder, Lyons was found mentally incompetent and sent to a state mental hospital.

In February 1995, a court declared Lyons mentally fit to stand trial. A Scott County jury, hearing the case on a venue change in June 1996, found him guilty of first-degree murder for the deaths of Harris and Sparks and convicted him of involuntary manslaughter for killing the infant.

Lyons received two death sentences for the murder convictions plus seven years in prison for the manslaughter count.

Duchardt said every mental health professional who has evaluated Lyons has found him to be incompetent, save one psychologist for the state who said Lyons would be marginally competent to stand trial if given the proper medication. However, the psychologist's testimony was given more than a year before the trial began.

Duchardt said Lyons understood neither the court proceedings during the trial nor subsequent legal actions and is receiving treatment for lifelong depression in prison.

Assistant attorney general Stephanie Morrell said no evidence refutes the 1995 finding of competency.

The Supreme Court has twice upheld Lyons' convictions. It affirmed the jury's verdicts in 1997 and rejected Lyons' claims of ineffective trial counsel in 2001.

Lyons, 46, is incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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