TEEN SUSPECT TO UNDERGO MENTAL EVALUATION

JACKSON -- A mental evaluation of 16-year-old murder suspect Joshua Wolf was ordered Tuesday after a request by defense and prosecuting attorneys.

Based on information obtained while Wolf was being held in the Cape Girardeau juvenile detention center, it is possible that he has a mental disease or defect, said Morley Swingle, Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney.

Wolf, who had already been sent to the Guhleman Forensic Center at the Fulton State Hospital for a 96-hour evaluation, will now go through a more thorough battery of examinations, Swingle said.

The examinations will determine whether Wolf is mentally fit to assist in his own defense, and whether he understood the nature of his actions at the time of the crime, the prosecutor said.

Wolf had confessed to shooting his grandmother, Carol Lindley, and then attempting to burn up her body and the house where they had lived for only a few weeks, court documents state.

A 96-hour commitment for mental evaluation can be requested either when a person is considered dangerous or when an inmate shows suicidal behavior, Swingle said.

Wolf had been transferred to the Cape Girardeau County jail from juvenile detention on Friday, after Circuit Judge Scott Thomsen certified him to stand trial as an adult for first degree murder.

If convicted of murder, Wolf would face either life imprisonment or the death penalty.

A full mental evaluation is initially given 30 days for completion, but this can be extended by the court, Swingle said. About six cases a year in the county require a complete mental evaluation, he said.

"Out of these, only a small percentage come back showing mental illness," Swingle said.

Typically, an inference of mental incompetence arises in criminal cases only when a defendant faces a serious felony, the prosecutor said. If a person is found mentally unfit to stand trial, he is assigned to a state mental institution indefinitely. A hearing for release can be requested every six months, but it is up to a judge to decide whether a mentally ill criminal has been psychologically healed.

"For many it is easier to go through criminal court because there you are given a definite time of release," Swingle said. "In a mental institution, he may never get out."