The county resident accused of killing her 19-month-old girl in
November 2008 remains deemed by the courts and a state hospital as
incompetent to stand trial.
The county resident accused of killing her 19-month-old girl in November 2008 remains deemed by the courts and a state hospital as incompetent to stand trial.
At a hearing in the Busch case this week, Judge Steven Sanders confirmed a Patton State Hospital report asserting she remains unfit for trial. She first was found incompetent to stand trial in January after a doctor had recommended the 40-year-old county resident lacks the necessary competence for the proceedings.
With the decision at Wednesday’s hearing, at which Busch did not appear, she remains indefinitely at the state mental hospital and is scheduled for another review hearing Oct. 7, said Gregory LaForge, her attorney and the public defender.
“It’s a continuing process,” LaForge said. “She might be back before Oct. 7.”
Busch is accused of shooting and killing her child with a .357 Magnum in November 2008 outside the family’s home on Shore Road outside Hollister.
At the state hospital, she is going through a program in which the staff is trying to get her to a level of competence where she can understand what happens in a court setting.
The review of Busch’s progress will continue, but there is a chance at some point it could be ruled that she will never regain her competence for trial. But LaForge noted how he has witnessed that happen just once in his career.
