by Tahlia Ganser
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 .
