LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Gavin Perkins, who has repeatedly been ruled not competent to stand trial for the 2018 murder of his mother, will be tested again at Metro Corrections in the next four to eight weeks. 

After being re-indicted for the five-year-old murder in June, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Patricia Morris ruled she was not going to rely on previous competency evaluations, and ordered a new one.

But attorney Sheila Seadler, Perkins' attorney, noted that the wait for a defendant in Louisville to get a competency evaluation at Kentucky's state-run psychiatric center was a year or more, leaving people jailed indefinitely and victims unsure when they would get any resolution.

Prosecutors and officials at the jail and Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange have said that time period has this year been cut in half, in large part because many defendants have agreed to allow their evaluations to be through teleconference or at the jail facility.

And that's what both sides in the Gavin Perkins case agreed to in court on Monday.

Instead of an unknown evaluation date at KCPC sometime in the next year, Perkins will be evaluated at Metro Corrections in the couple months.

If the psychiatrist, who has evaluated Perkins in the past, decides a more in-depth evaluation is necessary, he will notify the prosecution and defense.

The next court date has been scheduled for Nov. 20.

Perkins has been incarcerated or in a psychiatric hospital since he allegedly shot and killed his 69-year-old mother in April 2018 at an east Louisville apartment complex.

His case has attracted widespread criticism as it appeared that not only would he not stand trial for the alleged murder but be released after Central State Hospital officials testified in April they could no longer keep him in custody.

A judge sided with Central State, which said Perkins wasn't benefiting from treatment and the facility could no longer continue to hold him under Kentucky law.

However, Perkins has remained hospitalized by his own choice, according to people familiar with the case.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office indicted Perkins on the same murder charge, in part because he could leave the hospital at any time.

The family of Perkins' mother, Ruth, as well as Gov. Andy Beshear, had pushed for Cameron's office to take up the case, as they believe he is still a danger. Perkins was in the military and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The case has been compared to that of Cane Madden, a Louisville man who continued to commit crimes, be found incompetent to stand trial but also failed to meet the criteria for involuntary hospitalization, over and over for several years.

Most recently, Madden was charged with the August 2019 beating and rape of a Louisville child until he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial on March 11, 2020.

In multiple instances in the past, Madden has been found incompetent and failed to meet this mental health criteria — meaning he repeatedly walked free — dodging both incarceration and mental health treatment. In Madden's case, psychiatrist ruled treatment would not help Madden.

On April 1, 2021, Beshear signed a bill into law that patched that gap in state law.

Under the new law, a defendant found incompetent has an evidentiary hearing, in front of a judge, to determine if there is a probability the person committed the crime. The defendant will have an attorney for this hearing.

If a judge finds there is a preponderance of evidence of guilt, there will be another hearing to determine whether it is in the best interest of the defendant and the community for the person to be involuntarily hospitalized using four new criteria, such as whether the person was a danger to self or others.

If the defendant is hospitalized, a judge would periodically review the status of the person.

But that law was meant for defendants with multiple crimes.

Perkins' record is clear outside of the murder charge, and it is unclear if prosecutors could use the law since his crimes occurred before it was passed.

Tom Wine, the former Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney, had filed two petitions in an effort to keep Perkins hospitalized. The second petition led to a civil trial earlier this year, in which the judge allowed Perkins to be involuntarily hospitalized for 60 days.

When that period came to an end last month, the new Commonwealth's Attorney, Gerina Whethers, filed another petition asking that Perkins be hospitalized for another 360 days.

The petition was denied.

Family members Kirsten Russell and Chad Perkins have expressed concern about what could happen if Perkins doesn't remain hospitalized.

"We are just trying to prevent really bad things from happening," Chad Perkins has said.

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