Friday, June 13, 2008

Mouton orders mental exam for Memorial Middle School shooter

During a hearing Friday in Jasper County Circuit Court, Judge David Mouton ordered a mental evaluation for Memorial Middle School shooter Thomas Gregory White.

White, 15, is charged with two counts of assault, and single counts of armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, and attempted escape:

White’s public defenders had asked for the examination in light of recent evaluations of their client by a doctor and a psychologist suggesting that an extended jail stay was wearing on the boy’s mental health and that the teen might be schizophrenic.

The prosecutor’s office raised no objection to the request at a hearing Friday in Circuit Judge David Mouton’s courtroom before the judge’s ruling. Mouton subsequently ordered that White undergo an examination for mental competency at the Western Missouri Mental Health Center in Kansas City. He asked Assistant Prosecutor John Nicholas to see to arrangements for his transfer there as soon as possible.

But the judge turned down a defense request that White be released from jail on a cash bond and placed on house arrest while awaiting trial on five felony counts stemming from an assault-rifle-related case Oct. 9, 2006, at Memorial Middle School in Joplin.

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