P. v. Howell
Appellant/defendant Ronnie Earl Howell (defendant) was charged with several offenses after he ran through a stop sign, attempted to evade a police officer, and was determined to be intoxicated. During the course of the criminal proceedings, he repeatedly made motions pursuant to People v. Marsden (1970) 2 Cal.3d 118 (Marsden) and asserted that he could not be represented by any court-appointed attorney because each such attorney was employed by a office that was involved in a conspiracy to take away his child in a dependency case. The court eventually suspended criminal proceedings and declared a doubt about his competency pursuant to Penal Code[1] section 1368. The court reviewed two expert reports, which concluded that defendant was incompetent to stand trial because he was unable to cooperate with his defense attorney based on his delusions about every defense counsel’s purported involvement in the alleged dependency conspiracy. The court ordered defendant committed to Atascadero State Hospital.
On appeal, defendant contends there is insufficient evidence to support the court’s initial decision to suspend proceedings because it was solely based on defense counsel’s declaration that defendant was not competent. Defendant also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence as to the court’s finding that he was not competent.
While this appeal was pending, we asked the parties to update this court regarding defendant’s status. The parties advised this court that defendant had been restored to competency, he was in county jail, and criminal proceedings were reinstated. The People request this court to dismiss the instant appeal as moot. Defendant asserts this court should still address the issues he originally raised in his brief. We decline defendant’s invitation and will dismiss the instant appeal.
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