A farmer who is accused of murdering a 25-year-old jogger has been declared fit to stand trial.
28-year-old Quake Lewellyn reportedly killed, raped, and dumped the body of Sydney Sutherland who went missing on August 19 last year.
If convicted of the charges against him, which include kidnapping, rape, murder, and abuse of a corpse, Lewellyn could face the death penalty.
After Lewellyn underwent a mental forensic examination, licensed forensic psychologist Lacey Willett found that he is fit to stand trial, according to Fox 16.
Willett said in the report that the 28-year-old “did not lack the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct.”
“During the current evaluation, he disclosed that he put Sydney’s body on the tailgate of his truck ‘to hide her body so (he) wouldn’t be in trouble,’ reflecting that he knew his conduct could result in legal consequences,” Willett wrote.
“He stated that he buried her body in a rice field and did not tell anyone about the incident that night, further demonstrating that he knew his behavior was against the law.”
The report also stated that the accused indicated that he has no history of mental health treatment.
“He also mentioned that he ‘went to work just like normal’ the following day and spoke to a police officer on the phone, which also suggests he was capable of acting in a manner compliant with the law,” Willett wrote.
Court documents obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reveal how Lewellyn told police how he plowed down the woman with his truck while she was jogging on the Jackson County Road 41 South.
He said that he “tried messing with her a bit,” which police say was rape, before he buried her body.
Lewellyn then returned to work, came back home, ate dinner, and went to bed as he “just tried to forget about it,” the psychologist said.
The victim’s mother, Maggy Sutherland, told The Sun: “Everyone is still in shock, it just does not seem real. It’s like we are living a nightmare, not just the family but also the community.
“As a family, we are living day to day and trying to get through this tragedy. We are grieving the best way we know how. There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t think of her and miss her pretty smile.”
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Replaced!