Court proceedings for a Webster County murder defendant have been reinstated after a psychiatric evaluation affirmed his competency to stand trial.

Mark David Russell, 31, is charged with first-degree murder for the January 2020 death of 45-year-old Angela McLeod.

Russell was arrested on Jan. 20, 2020, after police responded to a report of an altercation at 21 N. 14th St. When police arrived at the home at approximately 9:14 a.m., they found McLeod unresponsive and, after resuscitation efforts by police and emergency medical services, she was pronounced dead.

According to criminal complaints, officers found McLeod lying face down on a bedroom floor at the home with blood on the carpet near a golf club missing its head. The alleged assault started after Russell broke the victim’s cell phone. The defendant and victim knew each other and Russell had reportedly been in a previous relationship with McLeod’s daughter.

After more than two years of delays, a jury trial was started in Webster County on Aug. 23. On the second day of jury selection, District Court Judge Angela Doyle declared a mistrial and suspended proceedings after finding probable cause that Russell was suffering from a mental disorder that rendered him incompetent to stand trial.

Mental competency is not a defense to a crime, but a measure of if a defendant can appreciate the charges they are facing, understand the proceedings and effectively assist in their own defense.

In her ruling ordering that Russell undergo a psychiatric competency evaluation and that proceedings be suspended, Doyle wrote that the court received testimony from then-Webster County Jail Acting Administrator Brody Goodman and Sgt. Madeline Richardson that brought forth “specific facts” that supported the request for a competency evaluation.

Russell underwent a psychiatric evaluation at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center’s Forensic Psychiatric Hospital on Oct. 25 and the results of that evaluation were filed on Friday.

A hearing was held at the Webster County Courthouse on Monday during which Doyle said that the evaluation showed that Russell was not suffering from a mental disorder hindering his ability to understand the charges, the trial or how to assist in his own defense. Finding the defendant competent to stand trial, Doyle reinstated the criminal proceedings.

In addition to reinstating the case, Doyle ordered that Russel receive continued treatment to maintain his mental competency for the rest of the trial proceedings.

This was the third psychiatric competency evaluation that has been ordered for Russell since the start of the case. After Webster County District Court Judge Kurt Wilke ruled that Russell was not competent in March 2020, the defendant was sent to the IMCC for restoration treatment and was deemed competent again about two months later. Another competency evaluation was ordered by Doyle in June 2021, and the defendant was found to be competent a month after that.

In early October, Russell made a motion for a change of venue, citing pre-trial publicity tainting the Webster County jury pool. A hearing on this motion is scheduled for Nov. 21.