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Competency Hearing of Former Most Wanted Suspect Postponed

Criminal Proceedings Suspended Against Thomas Joseph Murphy

By G.T. Houts
Friday, October 16, 2009

Update - Friday 4 a.m.

San Bernardino, CA - The mental competency hearing for 41-year-old Thomas Joseph Murphy has been postponed until Friday, October 30, at 8:30 a.m. in Department S-23.

Murphy, who is charged with seven felony counts relating to a June 23 incident in Crestline, remains in custody at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

(Photo by Booking Photo.)

Judge Michael Dest granted a defense motion for continuance to have Murphy transported to the hearing from West Valley. His presence at yesterday's hearing had been waived.

Original Story

San Bernardino, CA - A mental competency hearing to confirm the filing by the medical commission will be heard at 8:30 a.m. today for Thomas Joseph Murphy, 41. He faces seven felony counts relating to an incident in Crestline on June 23.

The former Most Wanted suspect's appearance before Judge Michael Dest in Department S-23 has been waived for the hearing.

At a disposition/reset hearing in September, the court declared a doubt as to the defendant's present mental competence (PMC) and all criminal proceedings were suspended.

Murphy, who was arrested in June in Fullerton after making the list of the Mountain's Most Wanted for the second time in 2009, was arraigned Friday, June 26, on four felony counts of false imprisonment, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and a single count of threatening a crime. He is also charged with battery, a misdemeanor.

Murphy, who is in custody at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.

During previous court proceedings, a dactylology interpreter assisted Murphy in his communication with the court. Dactylology is defined as "the art of communicating ideas by certain movements and positions of the fingers; a form of sign language, especially the manual alphabets used by the deaf."