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Suspect in 2006 baseball bat beating death of Kingsport couple found competent to stand trial

The man accused of killing a Kingsport couple in their garage apartment on Arbor Place in June 2006 has been found competent to stand trial.

Sullivan County Criminal Court Judge Robert Montgomery considered several hours of testimony before announcing his decision with regard to Michael David Fields, 39.

Fields has been found competent to stand trial on March 23 on two counts each of first-degree murder, felony murder and especially aggravated robbery. The charges allege he bludgeoned Glen H. Thacker, 26, and Asiah L. Foster-Walton, 20, to death on June 2, 2006. Police have said the killings appear to be drug-related.

On Thursday, public defender steven Wallace presented Fields' history of diagnoses and treatment for bipolar disorder and adjustment disorder. He raised questions about why jail medical staff declined to provide him with the antipsychotic and mood stabilizing medications he had received in the past -- on the basis of a single physical evaluation.

Psychologist Dr. Charlton Stanley testifed he'd evaluated Fields on several occasions and agreed with Fields' past diagnoses of bipolar disorder.

Psychologist Dr. Diane Whitehead, testifying on behalf of the state, disagreed. Making the comment that bipolar disorder is often too readily diagnosed, Whitehead said she determined Fields suffers from a general personality disorder and a general mood disorder -- but nothing to the extreme of bipolar disorder.

She and Jorge F. Fuchs, Senior Psychological Examiner for Frontier Health, also submitted a letter in support of Fields' ability to stand trial. It states he has "sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding" and a "rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him."

Montgomery agreed the evidence presented Thursday supports this finding, regardless of Fields' medical conditions.

After addressing Fields' competency, Montgomery addressed a secondary issue that developed during testimony -- whether Fields may need medication to alleviate the stresses of trial in order to remain competent.

Stanley testified that a person with bipolar disorder could easily "slide into disorganized thinking" and have a manic or depressive episode due to stress.

Wallace asked Montgomery to grant an order that would require jail officials to start Fields' on some anti-psychotic and mood stabilizing medication before the trial to reduce to that risk.

Staubus, on the other hand, sought to maintain the status quo. He pointed to Fields' lack of any significant manic or depressive episodes during the past few years in jail without any medicines to control his behavior. He also directed Montgomery's attention to the risk of negatively affecting Fields' current competency level by starting him back on medicines at this stage.

Montgomery ultimately announced the evidence supported that Fields is competent to stand trial despite obviously suffering from some type of pyschological disorder, regardless of whether its bipolar disorder or not. And he declined to order anything that might change that.

Also of note in Fields' case, a motion the state filed in October 2008 to have him restrained by use of a shock belt during his trial has been declined. According to court records, this type of restraint device was used during the Nickolus Johnson and Joey Goins murder trials.

Before the trial, Fields is also scheduled for a March 6 suppression hearing. According to Sullivan County Assistant District Attorney Barry Staubus, he wants all his statements, written and oral, suppressed, alleging that authorities obtained them illegally.

That would include Fields' statement to authorities that he'd killed Thacker and Foster-Walton -- which he gave after after first denying knowledge of their deaths and then blaming another man.

Fields is also charged with a third murder from Oct. 26, 2004. He faces charges of first-degree murder, felony murder,two counts of especially aggravated burglary and one count of aggravated robbery for allegedly killing Karen Nuckles inside a rented room at the Ballis Tourist Home on West Sullivan Street. He also allegedly beat two men who ran in the inn.

That case is set for trial in July.

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