An Athens man who has been hospitalized in a state psychiatric facility continued to be incompetent to stand trial for killing his brother and stabbing his mother nearly two years ago a Clarke County judge ruled this month.
Malachi Qaadir Dorns, 21, fatally stabbed his 29-year-old brother, Muniyr Gay, and stabbed his mother multiple times during a May 11, 2018, dispute at the family’s Cumberland Court home, according to Athens-Clarke County police. Gail Dorns, 54, survived her injuries.
Police indicated at the time that Malachi Dorns had “an extensive history of mental health issues.”
A Clarke County grand jury subsequently returned an indictment charging Dorns with malice and felony murder and two counts each of aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony.
In March 2019, Judge Lisa Lott ordered Dorns to be sent to East Central Regional Hospital in Augusta psychological evaluation and treatment.
The order came after doctors testified that they believed Dorns could be restored to mental competency through treatment.
However, during a hearing held last month, doctors testified that even though Dorns had been “compliant” with taking his medications and with his Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) treatment team, they determined that Dorns’ mental health had deteriorated.
The doctors testified that “such decompensation could be due to the severity of (Dorns’) mental illness…or just the biology of his disease,” the judge wrote in her order that was signed on Jan. 3.
After hearing the experts’ testimony and reviewing their reports, Lott determined that Dorns was currently unable to understand the nature and object of court proceedings or assist his attorney in his defense.
Lott ordered Dorns to be returned from the county jail to a DBHDD facility as soon as a bed is available “to evaluate (Dorns) as to whether there is a substantial probability that he will attain mental competency to stand trial in the foreseeable future, and to initiate inpatient competency restoration of (Dorns) if appropriate.”
The evaluation is to tale place within 90 days of DBHDD receiving custody of the defendant, according to the judge’s order.
“It is further ordered that should DBHDD determine, in light of present day medical knowledge, that recovery of defendant’s mental capacity to stand trial at any time in the foreseeable future, then they (DBHDD) shall notify the Court immediately” for further proceedings, Lott stated in her order.