What happens when a person not mentally competent is unfit for trial? Arizona case spotlights issue

When state Sen. Anthony Kern called a news conference to complain about the release from the state hospital of a man accused of a double murder, he was trying to make a political point that Arizona's new governor and attorney general were too soft on crime.

The issue is far more complex, and it reveals what can happen when matters of politics, criminal justice and mental health collide. The case he pinpointed shows how authorities must navigate through competing legal standards for mental health to balance the interests of justice and public safety.

It's one of many.

Kern, a Glendale Republican, called on Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes at a Monday news conference to rescind the release of Rodney Aviles, who three times has been found incompetent to stand trial in the 1999 Phoenix murder of his mother and 7-year-old niece.

Kern said after spending most of the past 24 years at the Arizona State Hospital and being prosecuted three times by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Aviles was released from the state hospital a few weeks ago through a Title 36, or mental health, court order.

Calling Aviles a “murderer,” Kern said he wants action taken so that criminally insane people are not released into the community.

“We do not know where he is,” Kern said. “He could be living in your neighborhood. He could be living in my neighborhood. He could be living next to the families that suffered this horrendous tragedy.”

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, also present at the news conference, said Aviles was released based on records and testimony from individuals who work at the hospital.

Kern and Mitchell were joined by Aviles’ two nephews, Sam and Charles Watson, and their mother at the state Capitol media briefing.

The discussion went beyond the release of someone with mental illness. Bigger, thornier, long-standing criminal justice issues are at play, which Hobbs, Mayes and Mitchell cannot entirely control.

The criminal justice system has to evaluate whether people can understand the charges they are facing and whether they are too dangerous to stay in a mental health facility.

Sometimes it ends up that someone is unfit for trial and is allowed to live out in the community, like Aviles, despite the potential danger. And sometimes it results in accused people remaining in the hospital for years, even though they have never been convicted, or even tried, for a crime. And sometimes it becomes a revolving door between hospital and jail.

Mitchell posed this dilemma at Monday's news conference: What happens when someone is potentially dangerous but cannot be prosecuted?

She said that not securing people with mental health issues is not kind to them or the community.

Mitchell proposed secure facilities for people like Aviles so they cannot threaten society. She said the issue of protecting people with mental health issues while also trying to protect the community has been allowed to linger for too long and that Aviles’ case is not unique.

Mitchell also proposed the state establish a group or subcommittee that looks into the issue.

Kern told reporters that he believes Aviles’ release and other problems within the state hospital have been made a political and civil rights issue by Hobbs. He cited that she had such concerns when an independent state hospital governing board was proposed in Senate Bill 1710, a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. David Gowan of Sierra Vista. The bill had near-unanimous support in both parties but was completely amended in June after Hobbs threatened to veto it, removing the governing board provision.

Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater said in an email at the time that Gowan's bill would have been an unfunded mandate that would increase costs "while not achieving Governor Hobbs' goals of ensuring health equity for Arizona's most vulnerable populations." Hobbs signed an amended bill on June 20.

In conversations with Aviles' family about their dealings with the state hospital, Kern learned there had been a change in doctors at the facility. The previous doctors, Kern said, had said Aviles needed to stay there. Now, doctors under the Hobbs administration said Aviles was incompetent to stand trial but could be released, Kern said. He asked why Aviles could not be kept locked up now, when under then-Gov. Doug Ducey's eight-year term, Aviles was at the state hospital or awaiting trial in court.

Slater said nothing like a reevaluation could have been done for Aviles.

“The patient’s release was mandated by a court order,” Slater stated in an email. “Governor Hobbs remains fully committed to keeping Arizonans safe, guaranteeing public safety, and finding solutions to improve ASH operations.”

'A scary place to be': Arizona State Hospital has safety, staffing concerns, critics say

Jesse Lewis, interim public information officer for the Arizona Department of Health Services, which oversees the state hospital, said in an email that the department could not provide details about Aviles because of federal privacy laws governing health records.

Lewis said the criteria for discharge vary, but they generally involve a patient meeting treatment goals. Those may include a period of strict medication compliance, stable behaviors, and continued adherence to all therapeutic programming.

Still, Kern said he believes that Hobbs was making a political statement to put the civil rights of people with mental health issues ahead of public safety.

“Never mind the safety of the neighborhoods. Never mind the safety of you and me. It’s his civil rights,” Kern said. “Never mind the grandmother of these two young men or their cousin that were brutally murdered. It’s the civil rights of the person that was locked up and should be considered.”

Since Hobbs oversees the Department of Health Services, Kern said he believes that she can take action.

Mitchell, however, said it would take a new court order to send Aviles back to the state hospital.

As to his murder charges, Mitchell said that even though there is no statute of limitations on murder, a prosecutor cannot just swiftly refile charges against Aviles because of a law change this year. Instead, Mitchell said she would first need to show evidence to a judge to prove that Aviles was now fit to stand trial and the judge would decide on Aviles’ competency.

Mitchell said she does not have that evidence. Rather, she has evidence to the “contrary,” saying that there was nothing she was aware of that showed he would meet the competency standard.

June 1999: Aviles leaves psychiatric ward, is accused of double murder

On June 23, 1999, hours after being released from the Maricopa Medical Center's psychiatric ward, Aviles bludgeoned to death his mother, Mauricia Aviles, 61, and his 7-year-old niece, Alexia, according to police and previous reporting by The Arizona Republic. He was 20 years old.

Police said at the time that Aviles was admitted to the psychiatric ward just a week before the deaths after he threatened to kill the family's and neighbor's dogs.

Aviles' brother and Alexia's father, Leonard Aviles, found the two victims dead at his mother's house near 45th Avenue and Tierra Buena Lane. The two were found next to one another and wrapped in blue blankets, with trinkets beside them including a family photo, a statue of an angel, and a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Aviles was arrested the next day after he was found sleeping in a wrecked car near Gila Bend. He had apparently slammed the car into a nearby sign.

In a police interview, Aviles told investigators he was angry at his family for being mean and abusing him. He also said he did not like the treatment center or taking his prescribed medications.

Aviles was sent to the Arizona State Hospital after being found incompetent to stand trial. He was released less than a year later after doctors decided he was no longer a threat to himself and others. He was quickly reindicted by then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas but has since been found incompetent twice more.

Andrew Clemency, Aviles' defense counsel for his third go-around in court, said that Aviles suffered from schizophrenia and cognitive brain disorders, according to previous reporting by The Arizona Republic.

Aviles' family: If he's sane enough to be out, then he can stand trial

Aviles’ nephews Sam and Charles Watson both spoke at Monday's news conference, also calling for actions from Hobbs and Mayes.

“If this person is mentally sane to come out of the hospital, they should be standing trial,” Sam Watson, 21, said. He added that this situation has been very hard for the family, and it could be very hard for another family if Aviles does something violent again.

“I am asking Katie Hobbs, our governor, to do something about this so this does not happen to anyone else again, because if this does happen, it will be blood on her hands," Sam Watson said.

He said Aviles is living at a halfway home, but he can move around as he pleases. Watson said that Aviles had promised that once he was out of the state hospital, he was going to stop taking his medication because he did not need it anymore.

Sam’s brother, Charles Watson, said he looks for Aviles every day, saying he “needs to be where he belongs.” Aviles is a threat to his father and the rest of the family, Charles Watson said.

Others like Aviles: Nicholas Oakes, but with closure

As Mitchell noted, other cases are similar to Aviles'.

Nicholas Oates also was found unfit to stand trial after the 2013 murder of his neighbor, but like Aviles, was recharged by the County Attorney's Office with murder after being treated.

Oakes was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had been on medication, was doing well, but later decided that he didn't like or need to take his medication anymore. He considered his neighbor a menace.

Oakes lived in east Phoenix and thought his neighbor, Terry Maynard, was ruining the community. Oakes convinced a private investigator to buy him a pistol and on Sept. 6, 2013, Oakes walked up to Maynard, who was outside, and shot him until he ran out of bullets, according to police and previous coverage by The Arizona Republic. He pulled out a second gun and kept firing, police said. He was charged with first-degree murder.

A judge decided that November that Oakes was not competent to stand trial and sent him to a state mental-health clinic until he could be deemed fit for trial, or understand what was going on in court.

He was later found unlikely to be restored by the court, but the clinic ended up preparing to release him. Maricopa County prosecutors rearrested him and refiled charges. His attorneys argued at the time that he needed to be in treatment, not jail. He ended up being found unfit for trial again.

Oakes was back in court less than a year later, and by 2018, he was found guilty but mentally insane in the first-degree murder of Maynard. He was sentenced to natural life in the Arizona Department of Corrections and committed to a state mental health facility.

What makes these cases so complex is that there are at least two different standards at play. Under the competency standard, someone has to understand the charges against them and be able to assist in their defense, Mitchell said.

The other standard at play is determining whether or not someone is an imminent danger to themselves or others as the result of a mental health disorder. But the Arizona State Hospital is not an indefinite stay for patients. The goal is to treat people with the intent to discharge them so they can be valued contributors to society, according to Lewis.

So, if people like Aviles get out, get off their medication, and spiral down a wrong path, they may find themselves in a revolving door situation with the criminal justice system if they are continuously reinstated to the state hospital but not prosecuted.

Yet another relevant legal standard is guilty except insane. To argue that, Arizona law states, prosecutors must show that people were suffering so profoundly from a mental health disease at the time of the crime that they did not know the criminal act was wrong.

"Essentially, if there appears to be mental health issues with a defendant, experts assess the defendant to determine competency. What goes into that is best explained by a mental health professional. The judge then determines if the case can move forward," said Mitchell's chief of staff, Jennifer Liewer.

"Release has nothing to do with competency," she added. "When Mr. Aviles’ sister was his guardian, we were able to have access to his records and those did not demonstrate competency. We do not have access to more recent records.

"Even though he was released, this does not demonstrate competency for criminal charging, and we do not have a good faith reason to believe his status has changed," Liewer said.

All of that leaves Aviles' family in limbo and in fear, unless the courts have a change of mind or evidence comes to light to show that he is fit for trial.

"Justice needs to be served," Sam Watson said, "We shouldn't have to be looking over our shoulder and living in fear. And no one else should have to go through this."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix murder case spotlights issue of competency to stand trial