Competency issue overrules guilty plea

The judge sends a woman facing a murder charge to a mental hospital for treatment.

By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
Published August 31, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Peggy Sue Abbott, 36, will be sent to another mental hospital, which will try to restore her competency so she can return to court.

NEW PORT RICHEY - The abuse first started when she was 13. She has been in and out of mental hospitals. She has schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and manic depression.

Now 36, Peggy Sue Abbott has her good days and her bad days.

In court Thursday, she had a very bad day.

Abbott wanted to plead guilty to murder. She really did.

But a judge would not let her.

"I'm all right," she said, sobbing, cradling her head as best she could with her hands chained to her waist.

"I want to get this over with," she said.

"I want to get this over with too," Circuit Judge Thane Covert said. "I need to know you're mentally competent before I can accept this plea, do you understand?"

"Okay," she said.

"So can I have a doctor come to the jail and take a look at you" the judge asked.

"No," Abbott said.

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There are two tests in Florida law for whether a defendant is competent enough to appear in a courtroom. Abbott appeared to flunk both.

She seemed unable to participate in her own defense, to discuss her case with her attorney. And she seemed to have no inkling of how the criminal justice system works.

"What's the prosecutor's job?" the judge asked.

"Who's that?" Abbott said. "Is that you?"

"You don't know who that is?" the judge asked.

Defense attorney Keith Hammond knew it could go like this. He said Abbott's fragile mental state is day-to-day.

When he came to the courthouse early Thursday, the bailiffs told him which day it was.

The judge declared Abbott incompetent to stand trial. She will be sent to another mental hospital, which will try to restore her competency so she can return to court.

"The judge did the only thing he could do," said Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis. "This case has already been continued 14 times because of her mental state."

- - -

Jerome Selby and Abbott shared many links: They were companions, and housemates, and parents of a daughter. But one day in 2005 Selby got rough with Abbott.

Authorities say she decided he had to die.

Abbott is accused of enlisting the help of a housemate to drug, smother, strangle, beat and suffocate Selby.

Her alleged partner, Melody Iris Samion, made a deal in February. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and got 30 years in prison. She avoided trial on a first-degree murder charge and a possible life sentence.

Abbott also faces life in prison, unless she takes the same deal.

She came to court Thursday to do just that. But she was the only one who thought she could.

She refused to see the doctor, Abbott told the judge, because she knew she would be declared incompetent.

"I'm not going to consider your plea until I have some mental health expert look at you."

"I just want to get this over with," she cried to her attorney.

[Last modified August 30, 2007, 21:51:17]