(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater man accused of using a machete to kill a close friend who was nearly decapitated has asked for a jury trial on the issue of his mental competency to face a first-degree murder charge.
Isaiah Zoar Marin, 21, whose lawyers maintain he is psychotic, will have a jury trial on Sept. 2 and Sept. 3 on the sole issue of his competency, a court official said. Marin remains held in the Payne County Jail without bail.
In court Monday, Marin’s court-appointed lawyers objected to the results of a recent competency evaluation by the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita, court records show.
The victim, 19-year-old Jacob Crockett, was killed on Oct. 29, 2014, in a Stillwater apartment that he shared with his identical twin brother, Jesse Crockett, who was at an orthodontist’s appointment in Edmond when the slaying occurred, court records show.
The Crockett brothers frequently let Isaiah Marin and his brother Samuel spend the night in their apartment, according to the victim’s father, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Ben Crockett.
In March, Marin was mentally evaluated for the defense by a forensic psychologist, Dr. Jolie Brams, who indicated that Isaiah Marin was not competent to stand trial, his court-appointed attorney Peter Astor said in asking the judge in April that Brams’ findings be sufficient to declare Marin was not competent.
However, Special District Judge Katherine Thomas ordered in April that Marin undergo further mental evaluation at the state facility in Vinita, where he was recently found competent. Marin has a history of mental illness, “with his first profound episode of psychosis around 18 or 19,” the defense maintained in court documents.
According to an affidavit by Stillwater Police Lt. Jeff Watts, a Stillwater police dispatcher received a 911 call from a cell phone in which the caller said, “I murdered someone,” before rambling about sacrificing and magic.
Asked his name, the caller identified himself as Isaiah Marin, and said, “I hacked them to death with a machete,” the affidavit alleged.
Marin, who was covered in blood and carrying a machete while walking on Highway 51, was arrested a few minutes later by Stillwater police, the affidavit said.
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