EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A judge says a Eugene, Ore., man accused of killing his landlady and burying her body in her backyard is competent to stand trial after more than two months in Oregon State Hospital.
Circuit Court Judge Debra Vogt has scheduled a July 6 hearing to set a trial date for 24-year-old Miguel Angel Chavez. He is charged with murder in the December death of 55-year-old Deborah Ann Stone, who had rented a room to him.
The Register-Guard says the judge ruled in March that Chavez was unfit to proceed and ordered him sent to the state mental institution.
Eugene police arrested him Dec. 7 after Stone’s relatives reported her missing when she failed to show up for work.