Published: July 02, 2008 03:26 pm      

Suspect accused in killing of Ky police chief competent for trial

A man charged with killing a police chief in an eastern Kentucky town was found competent to stand trial Wednesday, but a judge still must sort out whether the man intentionally failed IQ tests to avoid facing a death penalty.

Jamie Barnett is accused of killing Clay City police chief Randy Lacy, who was fatally shot in June 2007 in the back of his squad car during an arrest.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, but Barnett's court-appointed attorneys claim he is mentally retarded and not eligible for capital punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court banned executions of the mentally retarded in 2002.

Powell Circuit Judge Frank Fletcher scheduled another hearing Monday to allow defense attorneys to bring family members in to persuade the judge that Barnett is mentally retarded. According to Barnett's school records, he failed two grades in elementary school and dropped out in fifth grade.

At the competency hearing Wednesday, Dr. Amy Trivette, who is with the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center, testified that Barnett showed behavior inconsistent with mental retardation during her six weeks of observation and failed a test to detect whether inmates were faking their IQs.

Even though IQ tests showed Barnett tested below the mental retardation threshold of 70, Trivette said his IQ was probably closer to 84. She based that in part on his advice to other prisoners to stay off drugs.

"Whenever there's somebody in the community who takes on a fatherly role with some of the other patients, that's never the mentally retarded guy," Trivette said.

Lacy was one of several law enforcement agents in his family, including one brother who serves as a jailer and a second who is a court bailiff.

Lacy's practice of respecting familiar prisoners by handcuffing them in the front rather than the back has been identified by some family members as possibly contributing to his death. He was shot with his own gun.

Jury selection in Barnett's trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.



Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.