PORT ANGELES — A judge has ordered Abdinjib A. Ibraham to continue to take anti-psychotic medication to maintain his competency to stand trial in April for the second-degree attempted murder of a West End corrections deputy.
Ibraham, 32, is charged with a brutal attack on former Clallam Bay Corrections Center worker Terry Breedlove in a prison commons unit on the morning of Jan. 25, 2016.
In a Monday ruling, Superior Court Judge Brent Basden ordered Ibraham to continue to take up to 40 milligrams of Zyprexa and Haldol to treat his schizophrenia and maintain his competency to stand trial.
Ibraham’s trial was scheduled Monday for April 20.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said Ibraham repeatedly struck Breedlove on the back of the head with a metal stool he had ripped from a cell until the lawman was unconscious in a pool of blood. Breedlove sustained a traumatic brain injury in the attack, court papers said.
Ibraham’s competency was restored at Western State Hospital but deteriorated after returning to Washington Corrections Center last year, court papers said. Basden ordered the involuntary administration of anti-psychotic medication for Ibraham and a second 90-day competency restoration period Oct. 30.
Ibraham was found competent to stand trial Friday based on a Jan. 21 report by Western State psychologist Lauren Smith.
Smith opined that despite his unspecified schizophrenia spectrum disorder and history of post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder, Ibraham had the capacity to understand the court proceedings and the ability to assist his attorney.
Basden scheduled a second Sell hearing to determine whether his previous order to compel involuntary administration of anti-psychotic medication for Ibraham should remain in place.
Basden’s order permits the involuntary administration of Zyprexa and Haldol through injections to the shoulder or buttocks.
State psychiatrist Daniel Ruiz Paredes, the medical director of Western State’s Center for Forensic Services, testified Monday that Ibraham took the medications orally during his most recent competency restoration.
“He took it voluntarily because he knew there was a court order,” Ruiz Paredes said. “He did not want to receive injections.”
Ruiz Paredes, who testified telephonically, said Ibraham had no significant side effects while taking the mediation. He added that Ibraham does not believe he has a mental illness. Ruiz Paredes told assistant Attorney General Sean Waite, who is prosecuting the case, that the continued administration of Zyprexa and Haldol were necessary to maintain Ibraham’s competency.
“When he was not taking the medications, he becomes more symptomatic, meaning he becomes more paranoid, delusional and unable to engage in a reality-based conversation,” Ruiz Paredes said during the Sell hearing. “He’s irritable. He reacts to internal stimuli. He tends to pace, and (is) unable to engage in what we call prosocial behavior. The change is significant vs. not taking the medications.”
In Sell v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court set limitations on lower courts to order the forcible administration of anti-psychotic medication to incompetent defendants. The order found that involuntary medication would serve an important governmental interest, maintain Ibraham’s competency, is necessary to further the prosecution’s governmental interest and was medically appropriate.
Ibraham sat quietly during the court hearing guarded by four state Department of Corrections officers. He was taking 30 milligrams of Zyprexa and 10 milligrams of Haldol when discharged from Western State, Ruiz Paredes said.
Ibraham will continue to take the medications while serving a prison sentence for a 2014 King County vehicular assault conviction.
He is scheduled to be released from prison in June 2022. If convicted of attempted murder, he faces a life sentence under the state’s three strikes law.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
