A preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 12 for a Norman man who was recharged in May after being released from a mental facility and declared mentally incompetent for a crime committed three decades ago.
Cameron Lee Smith, 61, was accused of beheading his neighbor with an axe and charged with first-degree murder in 1996.
His case was later dismissed in September of 2005 under the competency law passed in April of the same year.
The law states that any criminal charges against a person whose competency is in question should be suspended until they can determine it. If the person in question is declared incompetent, they must be sent to a mental health facility to get the proper treatment.
Smith was diagnosed as paranoid-schizophrenic and due to the competency law was involuntarily committed to a mental institution.
Now, prosecutors have refiled the charges against him after being deemed to “no longer be an immediate threat,” according to a press release by Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn.
“Our goals are always to seek justice for the victims of crime and to protect the community,” the press release reads. “Refiling murder charges against Mr. Smith will ensure that justice is sought for Mr. Roydon Major and will prevent any further threat to our community.”
This is at least one of four murder suspects who have been released from state mental facilities in Oklahoma and later recharged in the last year and a half.
Because of federal laws restricting the share of medical information, the Department of Mental Health can’t share who is being released, which can be a struggle in the case of committed criminal suspects.
This story was edited by Alexia Aston and Taylor Jones. Zoe De Leon and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
