State: Accused Bike Week killer is mentally competent to proceed in legal case
The man accused of stabbing a couple to death during Bike Week in 2022 is now mentally competent in his own defense and no longer requires commitment to a state psychiatric facility, according to medical staff.
Jean Macean no longer meets the criteria for involuntary commitment, according to a letter from the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Macean, 33, of Orlando, has been indicted on two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon while acting with premeditation in the killings of Terry Aultman, 48, and Brenda Aultman, 55, according to the indictment.
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Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Macean is scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday before Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn for a hearing about his competency at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.
The Aultmans were stabbed repeatedly while riding their bicycles home in the early morning of March 6, 2022, after attending Bike Week festivities on Main Street, police said. Their bodies were found at the corner of Riverview Boulevard and North Wild Olive Avenue.
Blackburn ruled on Feb. 13 that Macean was incompetent to proceed and ordered that he be committed to the Department of Children and Families.
Macean’s competency was the topic of hearings on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1.
At the hearings, Blackburn said Macean had been diagnosed at the jail as having a mental illness, an unspecified psychosis. He is being treated with medication at the jail. And jail records reflect that he had “auditory hallucinations” and “disorganized thoughts” when he was first arrested.
Blackburn noted that both defense experts testified that it was likely Macean could be restored to competency within 90 days.
An order to transport Macean to the hearing on Tuesday also instructs the jail medical staff to collaborate with department physicians to ensure changes in medication do not harm Macean’s mental health status or his ability to proceed in the legal case. It also states that the final authority regarding medication for an inmate rests with the jail’s physician.
The order states that the jail should notify the court immediately if Macean refuses to take any medication.
The court file also contains a confidential psychological evaluation which is not available for public view.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Accused Daytona Beach Bike Week killer found competent to stand trial
