The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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February 1, 2012

Jury to decide competency

Watonga man facing 1st-degree murder charge in girl’s stabbing death

By Cass Rains, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

ENID — A jury will determine if a Watonga man is competent to stand trial for the murder of an 8-year-old girl last year.

The trial was requested by the parents of James Daukei Jr., also known as Icey, who was charged last year with first-degree murder in the death of Rosalin Reynolds.

District Attorney Mike Fields said an evaluation conducted by a doctor last month found the 21-year-old was not competent to stand trial.

The doctor’s report found Daukei suffers from decompensation since his incarceration March 23. Decompensation is described as a failure of defense mechanisms resulting in progressive personality disintegration.

“The doctor’s report says he is not currently competent to stand trial and needs mental health treatment,” Fields said. “The doctor believes with treatment, he can again regain competency within a reasonable amount of time.”

Fields said the state and Daukei’s defense both stipulated to the doctor’s report, but the defendant’s parents rejected it during a hearing Wednesday afternoon. Under state law, the prosecution, defense or parent or guardian of a defendant can either accept or deny such a report.

“By statute, they have a right to request a trial,” Fields said of Daukei’s parents.

District Judge Paul Woodward set a jury trial to hear the issue of competency for Monday. A six-member jury will determine the defendant’s competency.

Daukei was bound over on the first-degree murder charge following a preliminary hearing Aug. 15, 2011.

He was taken into custody about five hours after Reynolds’ body was found by her father and two men in a field behind an apartment building where the girl and her family lived. She had been stabbed multiple times.

Daukei had been staying at the same apartment. He was found by law enforcement officers as he was walking north along Oklahoma 8, just north of Watonga, and was transported to the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office.

Daukei confessed to killing Reynolds and to carrying her body from the apartment to the location of the grave where her body was found, according to the affidavit filed in the case. Daukei said he used a shovel to dig a hole to bury the girl.

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