Alleged Texas Cop-Killer Found Mentally Incompetent in 2012 Case

HOUSTON, Texas – A former attorney of the alleged Texas cop-killer says that his client had been found mentally incompetent to stand trial in a 2012 assault case in Austin, Texas. The man who now stands accused of assassinating a Harris County sheriff’s deputy was later found competent to stand trial but the charges were dropped.

In 2012, Shannon J. Miles was charged with assault after getting in a fight with another person at a homeless shelter where he was staying at the time, according to an AP article on U.S. News and World Report. Miles’ attorney in the Austin assault case was Jon Evans. He told reporters that Miles had been found incompetent, but he was later found to be competent.

Evans said that Miles’ mother told him in 2012 that her son had a lifelong history of mental illness. She told him, at the time of the trial, her son had “suffered from severe mental illness.” He would not elaborate beyond that, citing privacy issues.

On August 28, the night of the deputy’s murder, Breitbart Texas overheard a woman believed to be Miles’ mother telling Harris County deputies, “My son would never do this.”

Sources close to the case have also told Breitbart Texas that she attempted to provide Miles with an alibi for the night, saying he was home with her. However, ballistics on the gun found during the execution of a search warrant was a match.

Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson told reporters on Monday morning that in addition to the 15 shell casings found at the scene matching the gun in the search warrant, an eyewitness also will connect him to the crime. Anderson said that Miles fired 15 rounds into Deputy Darren Goforth, as previously reported by Breitbart Texas.

Deputy Goforth was shot execution-style at a gas station on Friday night. The officer was in uniform and was putting gas in his patrol car at a Chevron station in northwest Houston.

Harris County DA Devon Anderson, a former criminal district court judge and prosecutor, will be trying the capital murder case against Miles.

The decision whether or not to seek the death penalty will be determined later, said a spokesman with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Bob Price is a senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.