HOUSTON – Since the beginning of this year, we’ve found about a dozen defendants who spent about six months in a state mental hospital, were deemed competent to stand trial and were released on an unsuspecting public.
That includes 25-year-old Nathan Britton and 35-year-old Zachary Bell.
“Both were charged with violent felonies, both were declared incompetent, both were restored to competency within six months and both of them committed new felonies,” said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers.
Zachary Bell
Bell has 18 felony convictions since 2011, seven felony convictions since last year. His PR bond was revoked and he remains behind bars.
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Nathan Britton
Meanwhile, Nathan Britton remains free on a PR bond. He’s accused of beating a hospital employee. Court documents state in March of this year Britton was declared incompetent to stand trial for the second time and unlikely to restore.
‘We’re seeing it repeatedly’
What they’re saying:
“This issue is so far under the radar,” said Kahan. “No one, with the exception of us, is really talking about it. There are problems you can’t continue to restore people to competency within a few months and put them back into the community and expect them to be full functioning citizens. It’s not happening. We are seeing it repeatedly.”
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