Lukouxs Alan Brown, 26, of Fort Dodge, was arrested on Feb. 16 after Wayne Smith, 50, of Fort Dodge, was found dead in the employee locker room at Prestage Foods of Iowa, 3183 Highway 17, outside of Eagle Grove. According to the criminal complaint, Brown cut Smith’s throat around 5:40 a.m. Brown was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, a Class A felony.

In April 2021, Wright County District Court Judge Gregg Rosenbladt ruled that Brown was not competent to stand trial after Brown’s attorney raised concerns about Brown having “exhibited an abnormal thought process” and “stated he had been ‘hearing voices.'”

Brown was sent to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (Oakdale) for restoration treatment, which continued through the beginning of this year.

In early February of this year, doubt that Brown would see trial arose when the treating psychiatrist at the IMCC filed a report stating that “the defendant is not competent to stand trial and (after extended restoration treatment efforts) is not a candidate for continued restoration.”

Wright County Attorney Eric Simonson, as prosecutor, filed a motion for a second opinion before the proceedings could be terminated. On May 6, Rosenbladt heard testimony and received evaluation reports from both the IMCC treating psychiatrists and the state’s expert, Dr. Rosanna Jones-Thurman.

The last report from the IMCC from Jan. 24 concluded that Brown was not a candidate for continued restoration treatment. In that report, it was stated that Brown was given a “practical test” during which he was asked to watch a half-hour episode of a TV sitcom and was quizzed about the content of the episode and was unable to remember the names of the characters.

Rosenbladt, in his 19-page ruling, wrote “this Court questions judging the defendant’s competency to stand trial in a murder case being based upon in any large part his ability to comment on the contents of a TV sitcom. This seems to be somewhat of an informal test versus the many months of interviews, testing, medication regimens and formal interviews with the defendant.”

Rosenbladt filed his ruling on Friday, determining that Brown is restored to competency and resuming trial proceedings. Through Jones-Thurman’s February 2022 evaluation of the defendant and the monthly reports from the IMCC indicating improvement by the defendant, Rosendbladt found that Brown meets the Dusky v. United States standard and the Iowa Code standard regarding competency. Those standards include the defendant understanding and appreciating the charges they face and the penalties for that charge, as well as the ability to understand the proceedings and effectively assist his legal counsel in his defense.

Brown’s arraignment is scheduled for July 7. A trial date is expected to be scheduled at that time.