Judge: Man not competent for trial in woman’s stabbing death
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UNIONTOWN (AP) – A judge has ruled that a man isn’t competent to stand trial in the stabbing death of a woman who authorities said was trying to break up a western Pennsylvania bar fight last year.
Twenty-two-year-old Darius Samuel is charged with homicide in Fayette County in the February 2014 death of 21-year-old Rashaunda Fitzgerald of Uniontown.
Authorities said three other people were injured in the early morning melee at the Goal Post Lounge in Georges Township, about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Judge Steve Leskinen cited information provided by county prison staff in finding Samuel not competent for trial.
He ordered the defendant transferred to Torrance State Hospital for at least 120 days “for the purpose of restoring his competency to proceed.”