Authorities dismissed the charge on Wednesday saying Oliver Funes-Machada isn’t mentally competent to stand trial.
“Specifically, could he appreciate the charges against him and participate in his defense,” District Attorney Michael D. Waters said in a statement to WRAL. “The mental health professionals there determined he could not at this time.”
Funes-Machada, 19, was ordered by a judge to be committed to a state psychiatric hospital.
The teen was arrested in March for the brutal murder of his mother, 35-year-old Yesenia Funes-Machada.
In a 911 call, he told a dispatcher that he had stabbed his mother about eight times because he “felt like it.”
A warrant stated that when officers arrived to the Zebulon home, Funes-Machada was walking out the door carrying a knife in one hand and his mother’s head in the other. Two children, ages 2 and 4, were home at the time but were not hurt.
“We don’t know what is going to happen with him and his mental state, and so we will continue waiting, and either he will be found capable to proceed at some future time or he won’t be,” Waters said. “This is not the same issue as to whether he was insane at the time that he committed these offenses.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement previously said Funes-Machada, from Honduras, was in the country illegally.
An ICE detainer was placed on the teen in March, but a spokesperson said it wouldn’t apply if he was seeking treatment at a mental health facility. Waters told WRAL that Funes-Machada won’t be deported “until this matter is resolved.”
With News Wire Services
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