EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A judge’s order that a woman charged with the slaying of a Eugene police officer be treated at a state mental hospital was unusual only because so few such patients are accused of violent crimes.
Cheryl D. Kidd, the 56-year-old Springfield woman charged with the shooting death of Chris Kilcullen on May 22, was sent to the Oregon State Hospital. She will remain there for three years, or until she is considered fit for trial.
If she isn’t considered competent in three years, she will be returned to the sentencing court, and could face a civil-commitment proceeding.
There are 104 other such cases, reports the Eugene Register-Guard. Only nine of the people involved are accused of violent crimes.
