Des Moines slaying suspect due re-evaluation

Leemah Carneh, accused of killing four people in a Des Moines home in 2001, will go back to Western State Hospital so his mental competency to stand trial can be evaluated.

King County prosecutors did not object to the defense attorney's motion, which was signed Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Helen Halpert.

Carneh will be returned to the hospital for 15 days and then appear in court Dec. 11 to be arraigned on four counts of aggravated murder in the March 8, 2001, deaths of Richard and Leola Larson, their grandson Taelor Marks and his girlfriend, Josie Peterson.

Carneh was arrested four days later after police say he sold Marks' 1978 Monte Carlo to a friend's brother for $300.

Prosecutors allege the slayings likely were spurred by jealousy and obsession with Marks and Peterson, who were both 17.

Peterson's mother, Mary Marrero, who was in the courtroom Tuesday when the order was signed, said, "It's just disgusting how long it's taken to get him to trial."

Halpert ordered doctors at Western State Hospital to specifically address Carneh's state of mind at the time of the slayings and his competency to assist in his own defense and understand the nature of the charges against him.

Carneh was charged in the 2001 slayings, but charges were dropped when he was found incompetent to stand trial in 2006 and sent to Western State Hospital for civil commitment. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

Carneh was at the hospital until October, when the staff wrote to prosecutors saying he was now ready to be allowed out on the hospital grounds without supervision and to possibly be released into the community. He was then recharged with the slayings.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com