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Child rape suspect headed for hospital

Mental evaluation ordered before new trial

By Laura McVicker
Published: February 11, 2010, 12:00am

A Vancouver man who lapsed into a coma following a suicide attempt during his trial is headed to Western State Hospital for a mental evaluation.

The Court of Appeals threw out Osadebe M. Anene’s 2007 conviction of sexually abusing a child and called for a new trial. Anene, 51, was transferred over the weekend from the state penitentiary in Walla Walla to the Clark County Jail.

A frail-looking Anene made his first appearance in Clark County Superior Court on Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree rape of a child and two counts of first-degree child molestation, the same charges he stood trial for in September 2007.

Anene did not use a wheelchair at Wednesday’s hearing, although he had used one at his sentencing.

His attorney, Robert Vukanovich, told Superior Court Judge John Wulle he planned to submit an order requesting Anene be evaluated on whether he is competent to stand trial. Deputy Prosecutor Dustin Richardson didn’t object.

A review hearing was set for March 9.

Anene is serving a 15-year prison term after a jury on Sept. 26, 2007, convicted him of sexually abusing his youngest daughter.

The Court of Appeals tossed out the conviction in April.

Before he was due in court on the third day of his trial, emergency personnel found the U.S. Army major in full military dress, on his back with his Bible at his side, in his east Vancouver apartment.

Anene was taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center, where he stayed in a coma for months. When he came out of the coma, he had suffered brain damage and partial blindness from an overdose of pills.

When told Anene tried to kill himself, Judge Roger Bennett cited a court rule that a defendant’s voluntary absence does not preclude a judge from proceeding with trial.

But the appellate court said Bennett should have addressed the issue of whether Anene was mentally competent because a suicide attempt is “an act which suggests a rather substantial degree of mental instability,” according to the higher court’s published opinion.

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