Amarillo Shooter Found Incompetent, Still Indicted For Murder.
In case you forgot, Labor Day weekend 2021 was a pretty eventful one here in Amarillo.
Panic set in as someone was rolling around and shooting at random cars at night, and it was awfully close to my neighborhood at times.
Thankfully we were out of town for the majority of it, but we did have one night where we sat around listening to the police scanner because we'd seen the person may be back around our neighborhood.
David Lee Winfield was ultimately named a person of interest, and eventually arrested. He was initially charged with first degree murder, among other charges, after Laura Ashley was found dead in her car.
He was recently indicted on February 17th on that murder charge, but there's a bit of a twist here.
I dug into some of the court records and found that back on October 27, 2021 a motion was made for an incompetent/insanity examination for Winfield.
On December 7, 2021 that motion turned into an order for examination regarding his incompetency request.
It was on December 14, 2021 that motion was granted as Winfield was indeed found incompetent/insane and commitment papers were issued.
Those papers allowed Winfield to be forwarded to a state hospital to be committed.
Once a defendant is found to be incompetent to stand trial, the proceedings are normally given a stay and nothing with the case can happen. Essentially it comes to a standstill.
So how is it possible that Winfield was served with an indictment three months after being forwarded to a state hospital on incompetency? Is there a loophole somewhere? Was the incompetency determination rescinded or reversed?
I've reached out to the Potter County DA's office to ask about it, but haven't received a call back. I'll update you when I hear something from them.
In the meantime, keep an eye on this case. It's getting interesting.