The competency hearing for an Elizabethtown man accused of murder was delayed Monday in Bladen County Superior Court after the defense filed a motion to have its own mental evaluation done.
Jonathan Parker, 44, is accused of killing 78-year-old John Robert Cole at Cole’s home in Elizabethtown last October. Parker is being held in Bladen County Jail under a $5 million bond.
The competency hearing is to determine if he is mentally capable to stand trial on the first-degree murder charge.
Parker, dressed in jail attire of a white T-shirt and orange pants, briefly appeared in the courtroom Monday afternoon with his lawyer Harold “Butch” Pope of Whiteville, but did not speak.
The state has filed its report on Parker’s competency. Pope has hired a forensic psychologist to evaluate Parker’s capacity to stand trial.
Cole was killed Oct. 19. He had been stabbed with an Army knife that had a blade about six inches long, according to Bladen County Coroner Hubert Kinlaw.
Officers were called to the residence about 10:11 a.m. on Oct. 19 and found Cole with multiple lacerations, Elizabethtown interim Police Chief Kip Hester said.
When officers arrived on scene, a witness said that Parker left the home on foot toward a wooded area across the street, Hester said. Law enforcement personnel from Elizabethtown, Bladen County Sheriff’s Office and N.C. Highway Patrol searched the area. Parker was captured after about an hour.
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