Last month, Wright County District Court Judge Gregg Rosenbladt ruled that 26-year-old Lukouxs Alan Brown is competent to stand trial for the first-degree murder of Wayne Smith, 50, of Fort Dodge — a ruling that was a mistake, according to Brown’s attorneys.

Charles Kenville and Parker Thirnbeck, Brown’s defense team, subsequently filed an appeal asking the state’s highest court to issue an immediate stay of the District Court’s proceedings. Kenville and Thirnbeck argue that Brown is not, in fact, competent to stand trial, cannot meaningfully understand the proceedings or assist in his own defense, and that Brown’s due process rights were violated when a hearing required by Iowa Code Chapter 812 was held nearly three months past its 14-day deadline.

Earlier this week, Assistant Attorney General Darrel Mullins, on behalf of the state, filed a resistance to the appeal, arguing that intervention from the Iowa Supreme Court is “unwarranted” because “the defendant’s primary complaint is that the trial court chose to believe the wrong expert in a battle of the experts,” that it was not “improper” for the state to hire an additional expert and that the defendant is “unable to demonstrate any due process violation or other significant harm flowing from a three-month delay in obtaining another evaluation and report.”

Brown was arrested on Feb. 16, 2021, after allegedly attacking Smith in the employee locker room at Prestage Foods of Iowa, 3183 Highway 17, outside of Eagle Grove around 5:40 a.m. Proceedings were suspended following concerns about Brown’s competency to stand trial, and he was subsequently sent to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (Oakdale) forensic psychiatric hospital for competency restoration treatment. In February of this year, the court received a report from the treating physicians at the IMCC stating that Brown was “not competent to stand trial and is not a candidate for continued restoration treatment.”

Iowa law requires that a hearing be held within 14 days of the District Court receiving a report that the defendant is not a candidate for restoration. A hearing was held on Feb. 11, but the prosecution asked for a continuance of the evidentiary portion of the hearing in order to seek a second opinion on Brown’s competency.

A competency hearing was finally held on May 6, with testimony from IMCC physicians Dr. Arnold Andersen and Dr. John Bayless, and from the state’s expert, Dr. Roseanna Jones-Thurman.

Rosenbladt issued a ruling on June 17, determining that Brown had been restored to competency and resuming trial proceedings.

In the appeal, Kenville and Thirnbeck highlighted that Jones-Thurman is not board certified in any field, none of her current patients have a schizophrenia diagnosis like Brown and she spent less than two hours evaluating Brown.

Mullins argues that isn’t relevant.

“As the factfinder, the trial court is at liberty to believe and disbelieve testimony as it chooses,” Mullins wrote in his resistance filed on Monday. “And even expert testimony is not sacred; the trier of fact is not required to accept an expert opinion as conclusive.”

Mullins also argued that “the state is entitled to obtain an independent expert to present additional information on the defendant’s mental state to the court in the interests of justice” and that “there is no jurisdictional bar or other limitation precluding the court from extending the evidentiary portion of the hearing if necessary for a full and fair determination of the competency issue.”

Kenville and Thirnbeck filed a response to the state’s resistance on Wednesday. Noting that during the three-months that the evidentiary hearing was pending, Brown continued to be held in jail and that his symptoms of schizophrenia returned and that he had delusions that he was talking to friends 1,000 miles away in his head with help from the “CIA.”

“This fact substantially undermines the conclusions Dr. Jones-Thurman reached in her report and testimony,” the attorneys wrote.

Rosenbladt’s ruling will cause Brown to suffer “demonstrable harm” by forcing “an incompitent defendant to stand trial.”

“Early intervention by this court is appropriate because competency is foundational to due process,” Kenville and Thirnbeck wrote.

If Brown had been found incompetnent and non-restorable, criminal proceedings against him would have been terminated and proceedings for a civil commitment would have begun immediately, the defense attorneys argue.

“Due to the district court’s delay and ruling, Brown was and is being deprived of better, more effective medical treatment under the close supervision of medical staff,” they wrote. “The district court’s denial of a timely hearing for Brown allowed him to wallow alone in a jail cell for nearly three months with his only access to medical treatment being telehealth psychiatric services by a non-board-certified physician.”

The issue is now in the hands of the Iowa Supreme Court. As of Friday afternoon, no order had been issued.

Currently, Brown’s trial date is scheduled for Oct. 18.