Defendant in Harrison Twp. killing, kidnapping gets 2nd competency exam

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 4:43 PM Tuesday, April 28, 2009

DAYTON — Charlie W. Myers, the Columbus man accused of killing Jenny Nelson of Harrison Twp. and leaving her 4-year-old son at a highway rest stop, will undergo a second competency exam, a judge has decided.

The first exam concluded that Myers, 22 is competent for trial.

But defense attorneys have said that exam was unreliable in determining whether their client’s hearing impairment and language deficit will affect his ability to understand the proceedings.

Judge Dennis Langer of Montgomery County Common Pleas Court told The Associated Press he was showing discretion when he ordered a second exam Monday, April 27.

Myers has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other felonies. He remains in the county jail.

Prosecutors, who said they plan to seek the death penalty, have said he shot Nelson, 29, on Jan. 2 and had sexual contact with the boy.

Dennis Lieberman, one of Myers’ attorneys, said he is pleased with the decision.

“I think the judge is doing the right thing,” Lieberman said Monday night. “We have to be certain Charlie Myers is, or is not, competent. There were legitimate questions raised in the first report that need to be addressed.”

No one from county Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr.’s office could be reached for comment.

Heck and the two prosecutors assigned to the case filed a memo last Thursday, April 23, arguing that Myers should not be afforded a second exam.

Their memo said Myers, in his confession to police three days after Nelson’s death, was able to identify legal terms such as murder and burglary “without assistance or leading questions from the interviewing detectives, and long before he realized it might behoove him to feign ignorance for purposes of a competency evaluation.”

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