The homicide case against Todd Walters is slowly moving forward. Indiana County President Judge William Martin has scheduled a competency hearing next Friday afternoon for the 39-year-old Indiana man who is accused of beating his mother to death in February of 2015.
Walters is scheduled for a mental health evaluation on Monday at Torrance State Hospital’s Regional Forensic Psychiatric Center. That examination will be conducted by Dr. Neil Blumberg, a forensic psychiatrist affiliated with the University of Maryland Medical Center. Walters has been a resident there since Judge Martin ordered him to involuntary commitment and treatment in January of last year.
Walters’ mother, 72-year-old Ruth Shirey was beaten in her home on Diamond Avenue in Indiana and died later that same day at IRMC. Walters was arrested driving her car in Altoona later that same day. Subsequent court proceedings established that he had stopped taking his mental health medications prior to the attack on his mother, and that he did not believe she was dead.
Walters is charged with criminal homicide and aggravated assault, but the case was put on hold last year pending an evaluation that would determine his competency for trial.
