Zamora’s competency hearing delayed
13 Comments | Email | Print | 2718 views Tahlia Ganser | Skagit Valley Herald
May 04, 2009 - 03:04 PM
Last Updated: May 04, 2009 - 05:17 PM

Frank Varga

Multiple-murder defendant Isaac L. Zamora is led into Skagit County Superior Court on Monday. His competency hearing was delayed until Wednesday.

MOUNT VERNON — Even though attorneys agreed Friday that murder defendant Isaac L. Zamora was competent to stand trial, his defense attorney decided before today’s competency hearing that he couldn’t agree to that after all.

Skagit County Superior Court Judge Mike Rickert called the situation “another bump in the road” for a case that has now stretched over eight months. He delayed the competency hearing and arraignment until 1:30 Wednesday when a doctor from Western State Hospital will testify.

Zamora is accused of killing six people and injuring four more during a rampage that began in an Alger neighborhood on Sept. 2 and continued down Interstate 5 all the way to the Skagit County courthouse, where he turned himself in following a police chase.

Attorneys on both sides had told Rickert on Friday that the 28-year-old was now mentally stable enough to stand trial after being forced anti-psychotic medication since his most recent hospitalization in mid-March.

Because of Friday’s conversation with attorneys, Rickert expected to rule Zamora competent today. But at the last minute, defense attorney Wes Richards said that he would not agree that Zamora was competent. He offered no explanation in open court.

The death penalty remains a possibility in the case, as well as an insanity defense.

• Tahlia Ganser can be reached at 360-416-2148 or at .





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Latest comments

Isaac Zamora intentionally went out and killed 6 people and endangered who knows how many more yet people are hesitant to nail his ### to the wall....hmmmm....…

Posted May 15, 2009 - 03:04 PM by glitterfairie

Lady Juliette

#1. I am sorry for your loss.
#2. If not for the millions that will be wasted in a death penalty quest that may be overturned…

Posted May 10, 2009 - 01:38 PM by SkagitonianYouth

I am a friend of one of the victims and I say get it over with and put him to death. It has nothing to do with a vendetta, revenge or what is more cruel…

Posted May 07, 2009 - 10:01 AM by dl72


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