The DeKalb County man accused of shooting and injuring an Atlanta police officer at a Little Five Points restaurant last year was deemed schizophrenic and mentally unable to face a jury.
Late last month, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Linda W. Hunter ruled that Cameron Christopher Maddox was incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to remain in psychiatric care.
“The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities is to determine if there is substantial probability that the defendant will or will not attain competence to stand trial in the foreseeable future,” Hunter said in her March order finding Maddox incompetent.
Prosecutors say Maddox, 20, shot Atlanta Police Officer Dexter Toomer on the night of March 22, 2012, as Toomer left the Zesto restaurant on Moreland Avenue where he’d gone to buy a drink before his shift ended.
Then 19, Maddox was arrested the next night and charged with attempted murder and multiple counts of aggravated assault of a police officer, aggravated battery, theft by taking and gun charges.
Toomer, who had worked with APD for more than two years after 18 years with the Atlanta jail, was shot in the leg and quickly recovered and returned to work in Zone 6.
Police said Maddox was perched atop the roof of the Brewhouse Café, across McLendon Avenue from Zesto, when he allegedly fired on Toomer.
In February, Hunter ordered that Maddox be evaluated by a state forensic psychiatrist at Georgia Regional Hospital, a state mental facility.
In his March 15 report to Hunter, Dr. Joseph D. Browning diagnosed Maddox with schizophrenia, saying that Maddox initially reported hearing voices that gave him “stock tips” and refusing to cut his long, scraggly hair and beard and finger nails for fear that it would “break the magic,” according to the report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But after 45 days of interviews and treatment with antipsychotic medicine, Maddox still could not stand trial, Browning felt.
“Mr. Maddox has made very little progress in learning the legal issues so far … and he remains psychotic,” Browning said in the summary of his report, which Hunter referenced in her ruling.
“He has been unable to fully understand concepts such as plea bargaining, and he has struggled to consistently understand the roles of the courtroom personnel. Additionally, Mr. Maddox has not demonstrated the ability to appropriately discuss his case.”
Heeding Browning’s recommendations, Hunter ordered that Maddox remain in secured custody at Georgia Regional pending the results of another psychiatric evaluation by June 15.
Reached by phone, Maddox’s attorney, DeKalb County public defender Ruth McMullin, reported that from her communications with Browning, treatment was helping.
“He’s getting better,” McMullin said. “They are hopeful that he will be able to stand trial.”
When he might be found competent to stand trial was unclear, however.
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