This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
West Jordan • A Utah man accused of kidnapping, raping and killing a 6-year-old West Jordan girl four years ago still is not competent to stand trial on charges, a judge ruled Thursday.
Terry Lee Black, 45, is charged with aggravated murder, child kidnapping and rape of a child, accused of snatching Sierra Newbold from her West Jordan home and killing her on June 26, 2012.
The defendant is not competent to stand trial on the charges, 3rd District Judge L. Douglas Hogan decided Thursday — the latest delay in the 4-year-old case.
Black, handcuffed and shackled, smirked throughout the hearing, but he did not speak or address the judge. A hearing to review his competency is set for June 29, 2017.
But before that, Black is scheduled to be in court on Oct. 4 for a review hearing. Attorneys told the judge Thursday that they anticipate State Hospital officials will ask the judge to order that Black be medicated.
This is the second time in the past year that Black has been found not competent for trial. The judge also ruled in December that the man could not understand the charges against him and could not meaningfully participate in his own defense.
Black allegedly abducted Sierra, charging documents state, from her West Jordan house — about a block from his own home — and beat, raped and strangled her before throwing her into a nearby canal, where she drowned.
Three days later, Black was arrested on suspicion of an unrelated bank robbery.
When he was taken into custody, investigators noticed soot and debris on his clothing and hands that were similar to the materials in a field where Sierra's clothes were found.
Lab results later showed that Black's DNA matched DNA found on Sierra's body, prosecutors said.
Black has sent letters to The Salt Lake Tribune from jail in which he has maintained his innocence. Police were looking for someone to pin Sierra's murder on, he said, and he was an easy target who got caught up in the investigation.
The case went before the Utah Supreme Court on an interlocutory appeal in December 2013 after Black's attorneys said 3rd District Judge Mark Kouris was biased against him. The case went back to district court in September 2015, and the high court did not rule on Kouris' statements because he had moved to a different court by then.
The accusations of bias followed a July 18, 2013, hearing, during which defense attorneys asked that Black's preliminary hearing be delayed because of possible competency issues.
At that hearing, Kouris questioned why the defense attorneys waited until a week before the five-day preliminary hearing would occur to begin to ask for a competency review; the lawyers at that time had been dealing with the case for about a year.
"I have to tell you, the timing to me is very, very suspicious," the judge said. "You claim it's in good faith; I have no reason to doubt you, except that the timing is a little problematic for me."
In a subsequent court filing, Black's attorneys said Kouris' words during the hearing were "hostile, demeaning and humiliating, and disparaged the integrity and ethics of counsel for the defendant."
Twitter: @jm_miller