Iowa judge puts off trial of man charged with killing football coach pending competency ruling

Judge delays coach killing trial pending ruling

MASON CITY, Iowa — Experts agreed Thursday that a man accused of killing a popular high school football coach hallucinates and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, but they offered different opinions on whether he is mentally fit to stand trial.

After hearing from experts for the prosecution and defense, Judge Stephen P. Carroll put the case against Mark D. Becker on hold until he rules on Becker’s mental competency.

Becker, 24, was scheduled to stand trial Tuesday on first-degree murder charges in the killing of his former coach, Ed Thomas. Carroll didn’t indicate when he might issue his ruling, but Iowa assistant attorney general Scott Brown said he expects a decision in two to three weeks.

Although they agreed Becker suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, experts called by prosecutors and the defense differed sharply on whether he is fit to be tried.

“He is actively hallucinating much of the time,” Fort Dodge psychologist Dan Rogers testified. Rogers, who was called by the defense, said he tested and spoke to Becker for almost nine hours in two interviews in July and August and found him to be “floridly psychotic.” He said Becker’s paranoia keeps him from trusting his attorney and assisting in his defense.

Michael Taylor, a Des Moines psychiatrist who spent more than an hour in August interviewing Becker for the prosecution, said Becker likely suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has auditory hallucinations, but that he understands the charges against him and is fit to stand trial.

Taylor said he found Becker to be calm, articulate and able to joke.

“There’s absolutely no hint in Mr. Becker’s appearance or behavior that would raise any suspicion of any psychiatric disorder,” Taylor said.

During the hearing, Becker did not make eye contact with his parents in the front row of the Cerro Gordo County District courtroom or with Thomas’ family.

To prove that Becker is mentally incompetent, the defense must show Becker is unable to communicate with his attorney, understand the charges against him and appreciate the significance of the trial and his relation to it.

Becker is accused of gunning down Thomas in the school’s weight room in front of more than 20 students on June 24. He had been released from Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo a day before the shooting, where he was evaluated for three days following his arrest for leading sheriff’s deputies on a car chase. Before the chase, Becker allegedly threatened a Cedar Falls man and damaged his garage.

If Becker is found mentally incompetent, prosecutors have 18 months under Iowa law to prove that he has regained competency. If they can’t, they have to have him committed to a psychiatric institution, but can try and prove his competency at any point afterward.

The seven members of Thomas’ family present at court met with Brown, the prosecutor, after the hearing, but Brown declined to say what they discussed.

“They’re going through a tough time still,” Brown said.

Becker’s parents declined to comment after the hearing, as did Becker’s attorney, Susan Flander.

The news of Thomas’ slaying garnered nationwide sympathy. Four players he coached are on NFL teams, and he is widely credited with helping the town of Parkersburg recover from a deadly tornado in May 2008 that destroyed the southern third of the town.

Becker’s father is an elder at the church Thomas and his family attended, and Becker’s younger brother is a senior lineman on the Aplington-Parkersburg football team this year. Thomas’ family has said Thomas tried to counsel Becker after Becker dropped out of college and began using methamphetamine.