Preliminary Exam Postponed for Man Charged in Two-Decade Old Murder Case
A competency exam will be conducted on Kelly Brady while the preliminary exam will now take place on Sept. 21.
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On Friday morning, the preliminary exam for Kelly Brady — charged with the 1991 murder of Gracielita Flores in Dearborn — was postponed to Sept. 21 to allow a competency evaluation to be completed on Brady.
Currently a resident of Florida, Brady turned himself into the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies in May, allegedly confessing to a crime now older than 20 years. Dearborn police were informed and Brady was extradited to Michigan for a case that had been all but forgotten. The murderer of Gracelita was never identified and the case was cold until Brady allegedly confessed.
Appearing in court today for just more than 10 minutes, Brady was largely silent, allowing his lawyer, Maria Mannarino, to argue to 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers that Brady’s “history of mental diagnoses” should prevent his original confession from being used as evidence against him.
At one point, Somers asked for additional reasoning and examples that would indicate that Brady should be considered incompetent. Mannarino replied that she was “not comfortable” with the court’s inquiry into her client, to which Somers answered that the court is “comfortable” with inquiring into Brady.
The prosecution did not disagree with conducting a competency evaluation and eventually Somers did allow for it.
In an interview after the hearing, Mannarino said it is integral to the success of the case that all aspects, especially the mental state of her client, are understood.
“This is a very serious case and at this point before proceeding any further I want to make sure that I fully understand what his prior history is and the extent that it is still impacting him now,” she said.
Mannarino said that if he’s deemed not competent, there will be a 15-month period where he will receive treatment to see if he can be made competent.
“Sometimes it’s a matter of adjusting somebody’s medication,” Mannarino said. “The doctors will determine, through some course of action, … that he can be made competent.”
She added that if he isn’t determined to be competent, then he will most likely be civilly committed to a mental institution.
As to the how she thinks this case will play out, Mannarino said it is much to early to even speculate.
“We’re not at the stage we’re all the information has been released even to me yet,” she said. “I don’t know that I have all the information to make that kind of assessment.”
Brady is formally charged with premeditated, first degree murder and two counts of felony murder.
Apart from stating the medications he is currently taking, Brady stood stoically in his bright yellow jumpsuit before being ushered out of the courtroom immediately following the hearing.
As an indication of how old this case is, the prosecution said it is still waiting on medical examiner’s report, but the original medical examiner for the murder is dead.
NOTE: This article was updated at 4 p.m. Friday, June 22, to include comments from attorney Maria Mannarino.
Lee Jacobsen
7:20 pm on Saturday, June 23, 2012
They have been waiting for a medical examiner's report for 20 years, and no one bothered to check if the medical examiner was viable? Is this the best our govt can do? No, it gets better. They can give this low life meds to make him healthy enough to stand trial, and then , upon conviction, give him 3 meals a day and a roof over his head for the rest of his life, on your and my dime, while still giving him meds.
No wonder he confessed!!! He wanted society to take care of him, and we obliged.
It is time for the free ride to end.....half the folk in the USA are getting a free ride on taxes whiile the other half supports them by working their tails off, and getting taxed as a result to support the other half. What is wrong with this scenario?? At least insist on drug testing before giving any food stamps etc so our tax dollars don't get wasted.
Frank Lee
8:28 pm on Saturday, June 23, 2012
lee Jacobson's comments are prime examples of exploiting difficult legal and medical situations and reducing them to support hair brained authoritarian measures. One day he is against government advocating for healthy school lunch choices, and the next he supports drug testing people on food stamps. His comments have no rhyme or reason other than supporting right wing authoritarian nonsense he reads off the web. There is a reason we have a criminal justice system, a constitution and a bill of rights, it is to protect us from reactionary tools who want to use the government as their personal bank and police force, ie. Neo liberal groups like The Mackinaw Center. Last time I checked needing government food assistance is not a crime so why treat poor people like criminals. If you want to drug test people who abuse government aid test the wall St bankers, they received hundreds of millions in bonuses just weeks after recording a trillion dollar bailout. Every comment of Lee Jqcobson attacks the poor, union workers, government employees and public safety officers. This economy did not implode because the teacher next door has good health care and a pension or the Police and Fire departments have mandated staffing levels. It crashed because of an unregulated and nonsensical complex financial system that used easy credit to encourage dangerous levels of personal consumption even though real wages were falling.
Lee Jacobsen
12:55 am on Sunday, June 24, 2012
Frank Lee misses the fact that the govt encouraged the crash of the financial system a decade or so ago under the Clinton Adm, where no person, whatever their income level, should be denied the right to own a home. Read here:
http://www.bizpacreview.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.details&ArticleId=51497&returnTo=john-r-smith-1
Exploiting and supporting hairbrained measures?? The facts speak for themselves.
We are curing an individual in order to make him heathy enough to go to trial and punish him. Meanwhile, he gets a bed and 3 sqares a day on the taxpayer's dime.
Govt and food choices? Do you want big govt telling you that the lunches you prepare for your kid are unhealthy, in fact, examine the lunch, and pass judgement without your input. Govt does it already. See here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/school-lunch-guidelines-p_n_1278803.html Apparently chicken Mcnuggets are govt approved.
Regarding food stamps and drug testing, if you can afford drugs, you can afford food.
The tests are simple, not criminal, and if you are proven to be on drugs, again, then you can afford food and don't need the stamps, obviously they are sold for the drugs. As a taxpayer, I don't want to support someone else's drug habit. Apparently Frank doesn't mind. Regarding the Mackinac Center, hardly liberal. More commonsense than anything else. Check it out. http://www.mackinac.org/
Less govt in our lives, not more, is my view. Frank supports more govt spending. Why?