Incompetent to stand trial in a shooting.
-
....so he goes out and shoots and kills someone else.
A Nashville college student died a day after she was shot in the head allegedly by a man authorities said had previously been released for incompetence to stand trial in a separate shooting.
Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig, of New Jersey, died from her injuries “during the night,” the Metro Nashville Police Department said in a post on the social media platform X on Thursday morning.
The 18-year-old was walking on the track in Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park on Tuesday afternoon when she was shot. She was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition after a passerby found her lying on the ground.
Shaquille Taylor, 29, was quickly identified as a suspect and taken into custody. Police said the gunfire came from a public housing unit across the street from the park and that Taylor was allegedly shooting at a car when a stray bullet struck Ludwig.
Taylor had been criminally charged multiple times in the past, including in 2021 when he was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Authorities said he and another man allegedly shot at a woman while she was driving with her two children. At least two bullets hit the vehicle. The charges were ultimately dismissed earlier this year and Taylor was released after court-appointed doctors testified that he was incompetent to stand trial. Under federal and state law, mentally incompetent defendants cannot be prosecuted.
A court order stated that Taylor developed pneumonia at birth, which led to a brain infection, and that he continues to function at a kindergarten level. Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton wrote that because Taylor did not meet the criteria to be involuntarily committed, the court had “reached the limit of its authority.”
State law requires that two doctors certify that the person is suffering from a severe mental illness or developmental disability that causes them to be at a severe risk of serious harm to themself or others. The doctors are also required to find that there are no less restrictive measures that could be taken.
Funk criticized the state law, saying in his statement that the rules for when a person can be involuntarily committed are a “nearly impossible standard.”
-
That certainly is a bad law. I can understand that someone is incompetent to stand trial. But that does not mean that they should go free. They should be in a mental hospital getting treatment for at least the same amount of time as if they were sentenced to jail.
