Indiana County President Judge William Martin has been forced to continue a mental health review hearing for Todd Walters because the Torrance State Hospital failed to provide a mental health report on time.
The 39-year-old Walters is charged with charged with criminal homicide and aggravated assault in the beating death of his mother, 72-year-old Ruth Shirey, at her home on Diamond Avenue in Indiana in February of 2015. As his trial approached, Judge Martin suddenly stopped all court proceedings in January of last year, ordering Walters back to Torrance for involuntary commitment and treatment. In April, the judge declared Walters unfit for trial.
Torrance State Hospital administrators were under court order to supply a report on Walters ten days prior to last Friday’s scheduled hearing, but the report was not faxed to the court until 9:12 AM on the hearing date.
Judge Martin continued the hearing to April 3rd, and also ordered the release of medical and psychiatric records dating back to April 7th last year to the district attorney’s office.
In testimony at his preliminary hearing, witnesses established that Walters has a long history of mental illness and had stopped taking his medications prior to Shirey’s beating death. He has insisted that his mother is not really deceased.
