A Forsyth County judge has found a man who was charged with murder more than 12 years ago competent to stand trial.
Judge William Z. Wood of Forsyth Superior Court made the ruling yesterday after a hearing on Albert B. "Poochie" Conrad, who was charged in 1997 with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Clyde M. Parks.
In 1998, prosecutors voluntarily dismissed the murder charge after Judge Peter McHugh ruled that Conrad was incompetent to stand trial. McHugh ordered Conrad to be sent to a state mental hospital for treatment.
Conrad has been getting treatment at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh.
In 1997, Conrad had been living in a dilapidated house on Glenn Road outside Lewisville and had been known to shout at pay phones and newspaper boxes, stare aggressively at people, wave sticks at people, and jump in front of moving cars.
On Aug. 26, 1997, Conrad came down the road with a rifle and started firing at Parks and William Cory Hill, one of Parks' employees of his law-care business, Hill told the Winston-Salem Journal at the time. Parks was hit in the chest and died. Deputies arrested Conrad shortly after the shooting but never found the rifle.
In 1992, Conrad went on a shooting spree in Winston-Salem, injuring one man. A judge declared Conrad incompetent to stand trial in that case.
Dr. Charles Vance, a forensic psychiatrist at Dix, testified yesterday that Conrad has a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He said that Conrad could relapse into a psychotic state if he stops taking his medication.
Wood had to determine several things to find that Conrad was mentally competent to stand trial. He had to see if Conrad understood the charge against him as well as who the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney are and what they do. He also had to be able to assist in his own defense.
Conrad said he understood that he had been charged with murder and that he knew who his defense attorneys, H. Glenn Davis and Danny Ferguson, were and what they did. He also said he knew that the prosecutor was the one who would try to convict him of murder.
Wood ruled that Conrad was competent to stand trial but ordered that he remain at Dix until the case is resolved. Assistant District Attorney David Hall said he would reinstate the murder charge.
mhewlett@wsjournal.com | 727-7326
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