19-year-old pleads not guilty in slaying of coach

A teenager accused of fatally shooting Newport High School tennis coach Mike Robb last year pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges after a judge ruled Monday that he is mentally competent to stand trial.

Samson Berhe, 19, has been at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Pierce County, since he was arrested the day after Robb was shot while driving home. Berhe had been deemed incompetent to stand trial several times, and if he had been found so again Monday he likely would have been civilly committed to a mental institution and the charges dropped.

Instead, doctors wrote in a report to King County Superior Court that they were able to restore Berhe's competency through treatment, and attorneys will begin to prepare in earnest for trial.

Defense attorney Byron Ward said in court Monday he probably would proceed with an insanity defense but wanted to review Berhe's complete mental-health record first. "There's been a longstanding problem of mental health," he said.

Ward said Berhe was diagnosed two years ago with schizophrenia. On Monday, Ward requested and was granted one more evaluation of Berhe at Western State to prepare for a likely insanity defense.

Robb was driving on West Marginal Way Southwest, on his way to his West Seattle home, when he was killed June 26, 2005. Police later found Berhe, then 17, on a barge in the Duwamish River.

At the time of his arrest, Berhe "made faces, contorted his lips, spoke in different voices, spit and drooled. He flexed his arms and challenged detectives to fight," according to charging papers.

Berhe had been twice taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for a psychiatric evaluation before the shooting. After the second evaluation, on June 23, 2005, just three days before Robb died, Berhe's parents refused to pick him up at the hospital because they were afraid of him, according to police.

A family member of Berhe's present at the hearing declined to talk to the media Monday.

Robb's widow, Elsa Robb, filed a civil lawsuit in September against Berhe's parents, accusing them of being aware of their son's violent tendencies but doing nothing to stop him from walking out their door with a shotgun.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com