An Old Mill High School student charged as an adult with murdering a man and burning his body is not competent to stand trial because he is mentally retarded, his lawyer said Thursday.
Ross Womick, 16, of Crownsville in Anne Arundel, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court, and defense attorney Carroll McCabe filed a motion asserting Womick is not competent.
Anne Arundel Circuit Judge William Mulford II ordered Womick, who was 15 at the time of the slaying, to receive a psychiatric evaluation within two weeks from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“One of my experts, a psychiatrist, indicated to me that she did not think he is competent to stand trial due to mental retardation,” McCabe said, adding that several tests were conducted on her client.
Prosecutor Jennifer Alexander said she was opposing the allegation of incompetence based on what the state’s psychiatrists have indicated to her. She declined to comment further.
Womick will return to court Sept. 22 for the competency hearing and to determine whether he should be tried as an adult or sent to juvenile court.
The maximum penalty Womick could face in juvenile court is detention at a juvenile facility until the age of 21.
After Thursday’s hearing, Womick’s mother, Cindy Womick, said her son “feels very remorseful for this.
“I just don’t think he understands,” she said.
Womick was charged in November, along with Wayne Milburn Sr., 42, of Crownsville, with the first-degree murder of Krey Green, 23, in Crownsville on Oct. 27.
Womick told Anne Arundel police he and Milburn had plotted to kill Green when they met him for a drug deal.
Womick allegedly gave Milburn the handgun, and Milburn shot Green in the head as Green sat in his 1992 Lexus.
They then robbed Green, drove his Lexus into the woods behind South Shore Baptist Church and set the car on fire, police said.
Womick is being held without bond at the Anne Arundel Detention Center on Jennifer Road.
His trial is scheduled for Oct. 6.
Green’s family declined to comment.
Milburn’s trial is set for October.
