Bail dropped on area man charged with murder
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 10:48 AM PDT
VALE — The area man in police custody and charged with murdering his wife at their rural Malheur County home last week had his bail modified from $1 million to “no bail” Tuesday in Malheur County Circuit Court.
Bill Holmes, 54, Adrian, was charged with the murder of his wife, Janet Holmes, by a grand jury Monday and arraigned on those charges in court Tuesday.
Holmes was arrested Sept. 8.
Assistant Malheur County District Attorney Erin Landis said during the hearing, the defense filed a motion to send Holmes to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem for an examination to determine if he is mentally fit to proceed for a trial.
The judge indicated that motion would be granted as soon as a different form was submitted.
“The court didn’t exactly set an entry of plea date because it’s really hard to know how long the examination will take at the state hospital,” Landis said.
Instead, a date of review hearing to determine how the process is going has been set for 8:15 a.m. Oct. 14.
Landis said, just because a motion will be signed for a mental health examination does not mean Holmes will immediately be sent to Salem.
Once the order has been received by Oregon State Hospital, arrangements have to be made between the jail and the hospital to transport him once space becomes available.
“It’s kind of on a first-come-first-serve basis,” Landis said. “Essentially what it does is it puts him in line to be evaluated.”
He said, once Holmes is accepted to Oregon State Hospital it could be up to a month before the examinations are complete and the paperwork reports returned.
Landis said the Malheur County District Attorney’s Office acquiesced to the motion for a mental health evaluation.
“We weren’t entirely surprised by it given the defendant’s mental history,” he said. “It’s not out of the ordinary to have that type of motion done.”
In 2007, Holmes was deemed to be stable and not a threat to the public during a mental competency hearing in the Malheur County Circuit Court in 2007. Documents from the District Attorney’s office show, at the time Holmes,was not considered to be a danger to himself or to others and was not chronically mentally ill.
Landis said it’s hard to say what could happen should Holmes’ be found not fit to stand trial, adding a number of things could take place at that point but it’s too early in the process to speculate.
paul wrote on Sep 29, 2009 6:29 PM: