About two months after a judge found Michael Nehass unfit to stand trial, a Yukon mental health review board has reversed that decision.
Nehass will be back in court this week to set a date for trial.
The Yukon man has been in jail since December 2011.
He is facing a slew of charges in both territorial and supreme court. Many of the charges he accumulated while in custody.
In May of this year, a territorial court judge found that Nehass suffers from a major mental disorder. While suffering from a disorder does not necessarily mean a person is unfit to stand trial, judge Michael Cozens ruled Nehass’s beliefs “overwhelm his ability to participate in the criminal law process in a meaningful way.”
When representing himself in court, Nehass would make it clear he believes a vast government conspiracy has led to his situation.
Few details are available surrounding what happened at the review board hearing this week.
Nehass’s lawyer, Bibhas Vaze, would only say that “in my view the board properly considered evidence regarding fitness for trial - that is, the capacity to understand the proceedings one faces, the jeopardy that lies therein, and the ability to instruct counsel - and came to the correct conclusion.”
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old teen who spent a month in jail waiting for his hearing after being found not criminally responsible was released last week.
He was given a 12-month conditional discharge. The list of conditions include that he work with officials to come up with a mental health care plan and attend counselling.
(Ashley Joannou)