Mental health workers at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital say murder suspect Antonio Jones is fit to stand trial.
Jones is suspected in the Oct. 2011 shooting death of Davon Gray.
An earlier assessment from the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health had found Jones was not competent to continue with the court proceedings.
The Saint Elizabeth’s assessment presented to the court today said Jones “was not suffering from a mental disease or defect that would have significantly impaired his ability to recognize the wrongfulness of his actions or render him unable to conform his behavior to the requirement of the law.”
Jones’ attorney, Daniel Harn, told Judge Thomas Motley at a hearing Friday that the hospital’s report was incomplete and that more sources should have been interviewed.
Prosecutor Emily Miller said health workers tried to contact additional witnesses like Jones’ mother and girlfriend, but both failed to keep interview appointments. The hospital wrote that the information they found was “accurate and sufficient.”
Jones told hospital workers he left his cousin’s baby shower Oct. 15, 2011, and went to his girlfriend’s mother’s birthday party. Jones had about four ounces of Hennessy over several hours, he said, and was not under the influence of alcohol that night.
The report said that Jones said he saw Gray, who he had known since childhood, outside the house following the party and the two men talked after Jones asked for a cigarette.
Jones said he felt threatened by the tone of the conversation.
“I started feeling funny,” he said, according to the report. “Everything started looking different… like hieroglyphics, 3D maybe.”
He said Grey “looked like a vampire or demon or something. He grew horns and his teeth grew long. He was just smiling.”
Jones said he heard whispering voices in his head referring to Grey and decided to shoot him. “He told me to kill him,” Jones told interviewers.
But evaluators at Saint Elizabeth’s wrote that Jones’ responses to various psychological assessments indicated he was exaggerating his symptoms.
“If Mr. Jones were in fact experiencing the level of distress he reported on testing measures and in interviews, it would be unlikely that he would be able to function and carry out his daily activities without significant difficulty,” the report said.
Court records indicated that Jones had received treatment for bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress disorder, but may have stopped taking his medication during the summer.
Judge Thomas Motley ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Jones, which will take about 45 days to complete. His next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14 at 10:30 a.m.
