Capitol Hill Killings Suspect Incompetent, Doctor Says

WASHINGTON — A government psychiatrist concluded that the man charged with killing two police officers inside the Capitol last summer is not mentally competent to stand trial, a federal judge said Friday.

Prosecutors can contest Dr. Sally Johnson’s diagnosis that Russell E. Weston Jr. is a paranoid schizophrenic.

The prosecutors must decide whether to continue pressing for a trial on federal murder charges. Under Johnson’s recommendations, Weston could be hospitalized indefinitely without trial.

Johnson is chief psychiatrist at a federal prison hospital in Butner, N.C., and author of the psychiatric report asserting that Unabomber Theodore J. Kaczynski was mentally competent for trial. At prosecutors’ request, she evaluated Weston for several weeks this fall.

Johnson’s report is sealed, but U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan disclosed its basic findings and recommendation at a brief hearing.

Johnson found Weston “suffers from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incapable of assisting in his defense,” Sullivan said.

The judge did not say whether Johnson gave any more precise diagnosis.

Johnson looked only at whether Weston is able to understand a trial and was not asked to consider if he was sane at the time of the July 24 shootings. Officers John Gibson and Jacob J. Chestnut were killed.

Johnson recommended Weston be hospitalized for treatment that could make him well enough for trial.

“With adequate treatment with antipsychotic medication, there is a significant likelihood that competency can be restored,” Johnson wrote.