A 45-year-old Kent man continues to be evaluated by doctors at Western State Hospital to help determine if he is competent to stand trial on charges of luring a minor, in connection with a Feb. 25 incident that involved a 15-year-old Kent girl.
Rodel V. Bautista faces a competency hearing on Oct. 23 in King County Superior Court, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office, in an e-mail Aug. 7.
Judge Cheryl B. Carey ruled April 21 that Bautista was incompetent to stand trial. She ordered Bautista to be committed to Western State Hospital in Tacoma for further mental evaluation and treatment, or until he becomes competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
Bautista pleaded not guilty to charges of luring a minor at his March 13 arraignment in Seattle.
He is being held on $500,000 bail.
Prosecutors allege in charging papers that Bautista tried to lure a girl into his car as she walked along 100th Avenue Southeast near South 240th Street on Kent’s East Hill. The girl did not get into the car and took a photo of the car’s license plate with her cell phone. That photo led to Bautista’s arrest by Kent Police on Feb. 27.
According to court documents, hospital staff can administer psychotropic medications to Bautista in an effort to restore Bautista’s competency.
The hospital will give a medical report on Bautista to the court and attorneys for the scheduled Oct. 23 hearing to help decide if he is competent to stand trial.
No court proceedings on the case will continue until Bautista is found competent to stand trial.
Prosecutors wrote in the charging papers that Bautista has a criminal history that includes an assault arrest in 1993, when he stabbed a 13-year-old boy near a bus shelter in Seattle. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity after he spent more than a year at Western State Hospital.
Bautista has convictions for menacing, trespass, assault, obstruction, false reporting and theft dating from 1987 to 1992.
Luring a minor is a Class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
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