The man suspected of having beaten and stabbed another man to death on board a Metro train on the Fourth of July will receive a full mental competency exam.
Jasper Spires, 18, appeared Friday in D.C. Superior Court, where a judge ordered additional evaluations of his mental competency, court records show.
Prosecutors say Spires attacked Kevin Sutherland, 24, at random the afternoon of July 4 on board a Red Line train near the NoMa-Gallaudet University Metro Station. Sutherland, a recent American University graduate who interned for Rep. Jim Himes (D-Connecticut), was stabbed more than 30 times, police said.
Spires, who attended Louisburg College in North Carolina, was admitted to psychiatric facilities at least two times in the three months before the attack, The Washington Post reported. He displayed "bizarre and combative behavior" at one facility and needed to be retrained, the Post reported.
“Yes, my client has mental problems, but he is innocent of these charges," Spires' lawyer, Antoini Jones said Friday, the Post reported. "D.C. police need to catch the real killer. No one identified my client as the killer."
Spires is due back in court October 9, when the results of the exam will be discussed.
