Indiana County President Judge William Martin yesterday conducted a motions hearing for Charles Cook, the drifter accused of the 1991 murder of 76-year-old Myrtle McGill at her home along South 6th Street in Indiana.
Judge Martin granted a defense request for a mental competency determination, ruling that the state Department of Human Services and the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse will coordinate the evaluation with a physician employed by Mental Health Management Services. The competency examination will take place at the Indiana County Jail. Martin ordered the jail warden to provide the doctor with all of Cook’s documentation, including medical and psychiatric records and the Indiana County Behavorial and Developmental Health Program and the Community Guidance Center must also provide their medical and psychiatric records. District Attorney Pat Dougherty must provide the doctor with copies of the criminal complaint, probable cause statement, police report, and criminal information. The report on Cook’s mental competency must be made within thirty days of the Department of Human Services receiving the court’s referral.
The judge also granted a defense motion to retain its own DNA expert, psychiatrist, and private investigator, and he granted an application for transcription of opening and closing statements.
Finally, Judge Martin reserved rulings on a defense motion to suppress statements, a DNA swab, and photographs of the crime scene, and on a motion to dismiss the charges due to violations of due process. He said he will schedule a status conference following the return of the competency evaluation.
Cook was taken into custody in 2016 and extradited to Indiana County in February of last year. He had evaded capture since being identified as a suspect in 2007, but he’s served prison time in eight states and was eventually identified after his release from a Minnesota prison two years ago.
