The man accused of murdering University graduate student Alison Meloy last year has been declared fit to stand trial following a nearly year-long hospitalization for psychiatric treatment.
Hospital officials returned Jamie Jovin Poindexter, 19, to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail last week. Though a team of doctors released him from treatment, only a judge can determine whether Poindexter is competent for a criminal trial.
A Charlottesville court postponed Poindexter's preliminary hearing last June after his court-appointed attorney requested Poindexter undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he was competent to stand trial.
According to the commonwealth attorney's office, the study conducted by the University Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy found that Poindexter was incapable of assisting his counsel in his defense.
Based on the opinion of his evaluators, the court transferred Poindexter to Central State Hospital, a maximum-security hospital facility, in Petersburg, Va., for treatment over the past year, where he remained until he was returned to Charlottesville last week.
"He's back [in the local regional jail], and right now we're just deciding the next step to take," Commonwealth Attorney James Camblos said.
Camblos declined to comment further on the case but said his office is preparing for the next step in the court's actions.
Poindexter's attorney, Public Defender Jim Hingeley, also declined to comment on the nature of Poindexter's treatment or the next phase in his client's criminal proceedings.
Albemarle County police officers arrested Poindexter, Meloy's next-door neighbor, shortly after discovering her body in her apartment at 2117 Commonwealth Drive last April. She had been stabbed 15 to 20 times.
A co-worker phoned police after Meloy had been absent from work for several days. She worked as a teaching assistant for Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato's Introduction to American Politics and at the University's Sorenson Institute for Political Leadership.
Police located Meloy's blue 1996 Nissan Sentra, then missing at the scene, several days later in the 300 block of Greenbrier Drive, about a half-mile from her home.
A man identified as Shane Barbour initially led police to consider Poindexter as a suspect in the case. According to a police affidavit, Poindexter allegedly confessed to killing Meloy to Barbour and another man.
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