Accused Killer Ruled Incompetent To Stand Trial

Summary

Leemah Carneh was charged in a brutal quadruple murder. Relatives of his alleged victims say they're devastated he won't be tried.

Story Published: Oct 3, 2005 at 10:14 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 2:05 AM PDT

Accused Killer Ruled Incompetent To Stand Trial
SEATTLE - "I just went cold," said Lorraine Marks. "It was kind of like when I went to my parents' house that day."

'That day' was March 9, 2001. Lorraine Marks' parents Dick and Jane Larson, her 17-year-old son Taelor, and Taelor's girlfriend Josie Peterson were shot, beaten, and stabbed to death in the Larson's Des Moines, Washington home.

23-year-old Leemah Carneh has confessed he killed them all. His alleged motive was a high school crush on Peterson, the 17-year-old girl he couldn't have.

"There's really not words to describe how devastating and empty it is," Marks told KOMO 4 News on Monday.

Because on Monday a judge ruled that Carneh suffers from major delusions, has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and is incompetent to stand trial.

He will be committed to a mental institution instead of going to prison. Two earlier rulings had declared him competent to stand trial but his attorneys appealed the decisions.

"I didn't think you could kill four people and not go to trial," said Marks. "It hurts me. It hurts me for my mom and dad and for my son and for his girlfriend. And it hurts me that it seems like we don't care. You know... that the system or the laws in place are not fit to care about the victims and to care what happened to them.."

The only solace for Marks and her family is that the case isn't officially over.

Carneh will be re-evaluated every 180 days. If his mental illness improves with medication he could eventually be found competent to stand trial for the quadruple murder.