Ross delays competency evaluation

A competency evaluation for accused double-murderer Richard Ross hasn’t begun because Ross has apparently been unwilling to speak with the psychiatrist appointed to the task.

Second District Magistrate Judge Sunil Ramalingam recently granted defense attorney Lawrence Moran’s motion for the evaluation. In his motion, Moran informed the court that based on his interactions with Ross, 56, an evaluation is needed to determine his fitness to proceed and participate in his own defense.

But at a Friday review hearing, Moran told Magistrate Judge Michelle Evans that the psychiatrist appointed by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has been unsuccessful in his attempts to speak with Ross. The psychiatrist asked for the assistance of Moran and co-counsel Gregory Rauch in facilitating the meetings required for the evaluation, and Moran said they would make an attempt.

According to Idaho code, if the examination cannot be conducted by reason of the unwillingness of a defendant to participate, “the evaluation report shall so state and shall include, if possible, an opinion as to whether such unwillingness of the defendant was the result of mental disease or defect.”

Evans set a Nov. 26 review hearing in the case, and Rauch said he and Moran should at least know how the evaluation is progressing by then.

Ross is being held without bond in the Nez Perce County jail while he awaits a preliminary hearing that will determine whether there is probable cause that he committed the first-degree murders of 76-year-old Edwina “Eddy” Devin and her 57-year-old son, Michael Devin, the night of Sept. 30.

Ross is also the leading suspect in the strangulation deaths of Bruce and Lynn Peeples at their Grangeville home in 1994. Ross has not been charged in that case, but the investigation has been reopened.