Eric Brian Brown
NORFOLK, Va. – There are new court records that reveal potential advancement for the high-profile federal case involving Ashanti Billie’s death.
Evaluators believe Eric Brown, the man accused of abducting and killing Ashanti Billie, is now competent to stand trial, according to these court records.
However, a federal judge must make the final decision on whether he is competent to stand trial or not.
Brown’s defense attorney wrote this in a document filed in federal court on Tuesday:
Acknowledging that the determination of Mr. Brown’s current competency and need for further restoration is ultimately a decision for the Court, the BOP evaluator opined that Mr. Brown is now competent to stand trial. A competency hearing is currently scheduled for February 27, 2019, but an unopposed defense motion to continue that hearing was filed yesterday.
This meaning that a judge will need to hear arguments on this issue, so a competency hearing has been set for next month.
Psychiatrists will also not be able to file a report and testify until March 27, according to the documents .
President Donald Trump recently signed the Ashanti Alert Act on December 31, and it is now a law.
The act passed the U.S. Senate in early December and passed the U.S. House of Representatives -its final step in Congress – on December 20.
Now that information from the new records have been brought to the courts attention, we wait for a judge to announce any possible delay with the court date.
Click here for our full coverage on the disappearance of Ashanti Billie
