Donald Ray Wallace - Pre-trial Hearings

Pre-trial Hearings

Wallace raised several issues concerning his mental competency to stand trial and four hearings were held before the trial judge found Wallace was competent to understand the proceedings and assist his counsel in his defense.

A first hearing was instituted by the trial judge who detected reasonable grounds that Wallace lacked competency to proceed. The court then appointed two psychiatrists, Dr. Larry Davis and Dr. John Kooiker, to examine Wallace. In their reports they opined that Wallace was incompetent to proceed with trial because he was suffering from acute paranoid schizophrenia.

At a hearing held in May 1980 Davis and Kooiker described elaborate delusions expressed by Wallace of plots against him. He had told the doctors about his belief that the CIA and Masons were attempting to place him before a firing squad to prevent his release of secret matters including information on the Iranian hostage situation. He expressed concern about others plotting against him including his attorney and court personnel, he imagined radio-listening devices were planted in his cell and in the room where the psychiatrists interviewed him, and he expressed suspicion of the psychiatrists and of all those with whom he came in contact.

Davis and Kooiker concluded Wallace was unable to assist counsel at the time or to participate in and understand the trial proceedings. Each stated Wallace's apparent condition would be very difficult to feign. The State's two witnesses, Wallace's cellmate and a member of the Sheriff's department, testified Wallace displayed these mannerisms only at selective times, the implication being Wallace was feigning the psychosis. After taking the matter under advisement the judge found in May 1980 that Wallace was incompetent to stand trial, stating that despite evidence to the contrary, his decision was based on an overwhelming evidence of incompetency given by the doctors.

The Superintendent of Logansport State Hospital later certified to the court that Wallace had now attained competency to stand trial based upon a Dr. Matheu's opinion. However, the hearing scheduled pursuant to this certification was continued when Davis and Kooiker opined that Wallace needed further evaluation and treatment. After that Wallace had become oriented with time, place, and person, and now both psychiatrists considered Wallace competent to stand trial.

At the second hearing Wallace appeared too heavily sedated from the medication. The psychiatrists testified that Wallace's dosage of psychotic medication could be modified such that he would maintain competency but not experience the sedative side effects. Over Wallace’s objection the court ruled that his competency depended upon an adjustment in his medication and ordered him back to Wishard Hospital for further treatment.

At the next and third hearing on January 16, 1981, Kooiker, Davis, and Moore opined that Wallace was incompetent to proceed with trial. All three psychiatrists testified that he was again suffering from symptoms of schizophrenia and that the suggested modified treatment from the previous hearing had failed. The general consensus was that Wallace was not feigning the psychosis. Moore testified that if Wallace was faking, he was "one of the best damn actors he had ever seen." Once again the court found Wallace incompetent to stand trial and ordered him committed.

In February 1982 the State moved for another competency hearing informing the court it could produce evidence that Wallace had been faking his psychosis to which the court so ordered. At the June 16 hearing the State introduced letters Wallace had written to Durham, during the time between his arrest and the first pretrial court appearance, at which his competency was put at issue. These letters indicated a full understanding of what he was doing and were intended to show he purposefully feigned incompetency to delay his trial and frustrate the State's attempt to have him sentenced to death. In the letters he discussed Durham's loyalty to him, their sex lives, and his feelings toward his attorney. He wrote he had a higher I.Q. than his attorney and so was planning to hire an attorney from San Francisco with the assistance of his uncle. His uncle would furnish the money for an attorney with the reputation for gaining acquittals for persons charged with murder. He said he was studying from materials furnished to him by a friend who was a professor from a local law school. His studies concentrated on suppression of evidence and the art of cross-examination. He indicated he was becoming very well informed on these subjects so that he would be in a position to attack the State in court and frustrate their case. Wallace also told Durham, who was in jail on a burglary charge herself, that she would not have to worry if she went to the Women's Prison because he had connections in the prison that would get her special consideration.