Judge finds Douglas County murder suspect incompetent, sends him to hospital

A Douglas County judge has put Marcus Logan Cassella’s murder case on pause, finding the 25-year-old incompetent to stand trial and ordering him to Larned State Hospital for treatment.

The ruling does not answer whether Cassella is guilty or innocent in the death of his grandmother, Lynn Audrey Abrams, 70. It means the court has stopped the normal criminal timeline because Cassella must first be able to understand the case against him and help his lawyer defend him. Judge Stacey Donovan set a new status conference for Aug. 25. If Cassella has not gotten a bed at Larned by then, the court will pick another date.

Cassella appeared by video from the Douglas County Jail and remained held on $1 million bond. Donovan had already appointed attorney Razmi Tahirkheli after Cassella initially told the court he did not want a lawyer. The state described him as a severe flight risk and a severe safety risk to the community.

Kansas law allows a district judge to suspend felony proceedings when there is reason to believe a defendant is incompetent. The law also allows psychiatric or psychological examination for up to 60 days, or until the exam is finished, and requires certification within 90 days after inpatient treatment begins on whether the defendant has a substantial probability of regaining competency in the foreseeable future. In practice, that can turn into a long wait. Larned State Hospital, the state’s largest psychiatric facility, has a budgeted capacity of 525 beds, including 220 in its State Security Program and 200 for a mentally ill forensic population. Kansas courts have warned that incompetent detainees can spend up to a year in county jail while waiting for admission.

Cassella is charged with first-degree murder after police say he killed Abrams on April 18 at a home in the 2500 block of West 24th Terrace in Lawrence. Police said he called 911 and told dispatch he had strangled his grandmother. Officers found Abrams unresponsive in bed when they arrived around 2 a.m. Cassella made his first court appearance on April 20, when the complaint was read aloud.

The case has drawn added attention because Cassella has a 2020 aggravated assault conviction and was accused in a 2023 Douglas County case of choking a woman while she walked her dog, a case that ended in misdemeanor battery. Abrams’ family has described her as a longtime Hallmark Cards worker who loved people, plants, traditions and live music. People at a downtown Lawrence protest held a moment of silence for her on April 20, underscoring how the killing has reached beyond the courtroom while the criminal case waits on treatment space.