Judge orders psych evaluation for man in slaying of 3-year-old
A Chester County Court judge ordered a psychological evaluation for a man charged in the abuse and eventual beating death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son in 2014.
Gary Lee Fellenbaum III, 25, and his girlfriend, Jillian Tait, 33, are accused of beating 3-year-old Scott McMillan and his 6-year-old brother with their fists, frying pans, metal rods, and whips.
Police said the adults also hung the children upside down by their feet and beat them and taped Scott to a chair and beat him until he was unconscious.
The abuse had continued for some time, and the fatal beatings occurred from Nov. 2 to 4, 2014, inside Fellenbaum's mobile home in West Caln Township, officials said.
Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty for Tait and Fellenbaum.
At a hearing in West Chester on Thursday, Judge William P. Mahon said he had received a handwritten letter from Fellenbaum on Jan. 10 in which he said he wanted to represent himself at trial. Mahon said he notified prosecutors and Fellenbaum's attorney, George S. Yacoubian Jr., neither of whom knew of the letter.
After Yacoubian talked to Fellenbaum, the attorney sent a letter to the judge saying his client did not wish to represent himself and asking for a competency evaluation for Fellenbaum.
On Thursday, Yacoubian said he no longer thought the evaluation was necessary.
"In conversations with Mr. Fellenbaum, there were some issues that concerned me that prompted my request for a competency hearing," Yacoubian told the judge. After talking further with Fellenbaum, however, he said, he believes that his client is competent and understands the court proceedings, and that the statements that made him question his client's mental state came from "undue influence" from fellow inmates at the Chester County Prison.
But Michael Noone, Chester County's first assistant district attorney, said a dismissal of the initial request for a psychological evaluation might raise questions later about the integrity of a possible conviction.
"At this point, once competency is raised, the proverbial genie is out of the bottle and needs to be addressed," Noone said.
The judge agreed.
"You have, in good faith, raised the issue," Mahon told Yacoubian.
The judge gave the defense 45 days to finalize a psychological evaluation report.
He rescheduled the trial, which had been set to start in early April, for Sept. 18.