Miller County prosecutors to seek competency study of defendant

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TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP)   Prosecutors in southwest Arkansas say they’ll ask for another evaluation of a man charged with killing his girlfriend after three previous exams found him mentally incompetent.

The Texarkana Gazette reports that a Miller County prosecutor said Friday that they will seek testing of 59-year-old Tony Earl Taylor by an expert outside the Arkansas State Hospital system. Taylor’s attorney said he does not oppose the request.

State reported three times since 2017 that Taylor is mentally incompetent and likely cannot regain mental fitness to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in the death of 35-year-old Crystal Reed of Texarkana, Arkansas.

Court documents say Reed was found dead in Ogden, Arkansas, in March 2017 after police questioned Taylor and he led them to the buried body.

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