KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Charles Brownlow, the Terrell man accused of shooting to death five people in October 2013, has been found competent to stand trial for capital murder, Kaufman County’s 422nd District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty determined on Monday in a court ruling.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Charles Brownlow, the Terrell man accused of shooting to death five people in October 2013, has been found competent to stand trial for capital murder, Kaufman County’s 422nd District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty determined on Monday in a court ruling.
Brownlow had undergone a competency hearing and several rounds of evaluations from state, court, and defense experts.
The state’s and court’s experts accused Brownlow of “embellishing symptoms of mental illness” as a “viable defense” stating Brownlow was “able to turn on and off his delusional, hallucinatory state at will.”
Brownlow is accused in the shooting deaths of his 61-year-old mother, Mary Brownlow, his 55-year-old aunt, Belinda Young Walker, 30-year-old Kelleye Pratt Sluder, Jason Michael Wooden and 22-year-old Luis Gerardo Leal-Carillo.
Brownlow was captured following a four-hour multi-agency manhunt in Terrell. He stands charged with capital murder by terror threat or other felony, three counts of capital murder, burglary of a habitation intend other felony, evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, and contempt of court/disobedience of court order and is being held at the Kaufman County Jail on bonds totaling $13,601,000.
Brownlow’s October 26 jury trial setting has been canceled, according to court records, and a pretrial hearing is scheduled for October 19, 2015. The trial is expected to last between five and eight days.