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Tate ruled competent to face hearing

Lionel Tate, now 18, is on probation for the 1999 killing of a 6-year-old girl, which happened when he was 12.

FORT LAUDERDALE - Convicted child killer Lionel Tate is mentally competent to face a hearing that could send him back to prison for life, a judge ruled Monday after two psychologists testified that Tate appeared to be faking symptoms of mental illness.

Broward County Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus set a Feb. 27 hearing to determine whether Tate should return to prison for allegedly violating probation by robbing a pizza delivery man at gunpoint. Tate is on probation for the 1999 killing of a 6-year-old girl his mother was baby-sitting.

Tate's lawyers said at Monday's competency hearing that Tate did not actually write a letter to Lazarus claiming he was "hearing voices" and had considered suicide. The letter was written by an older jail inmate and signed by Tate, the attorneys said.

"It was a desperate attempt by a young man who was being manipulated," said H. Dohn Williams, an assistant public defender. Williams didn't know whether Tate or the other inmate, identified as Sanders Hightower, 34, had initiated the letter. The letter caused Lazarus to postpone a scheduled Dec. 5 hearing on whether Tate violated probation by allegedly committing the May pizza robbery.

Tate, now 18, was once the youngest person sentenced to life in prison in modern U.S. history for beating and stomping to death 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick, which happened when he was 12.

Tate's lawyers initially claimed he was imitating professional wrestling moves when the girl died.

Tate's murder conviction and life sentence were overturned on appeal, leading to a plea deal that had him plead guilty to second-degree murder and the released him on probation.

[Last modified December 20, 2005, 01:49:07]