Alleged Killer’s Mental Competence Questioned

The results of two psychiatric evaluations rendered conflicting results today on a former marine charged with murder.

Kesaun Kedron Sykes, 23, was examined because of an incident in January when he stood up during a hearing, urinated in his hand and flung it around the courtroom saying he was banishing unseen demons.

Sykes is one of four men accused of killing Marine Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife, Quiana Faye Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, in 2008.

The two evaluations rendered different results, said Linda Vose, an attorney for Sykes. “They don’t necessarily agree with each other,” she said. She declined to say whether she felt Sykes was mentally competent.

Judge F. Paul Dickerson put off the trial until March 25 when he will have copies of the reports.

At that hearing, the judge will read the reports and decide whether the defendant is competent to stand trial, Vose said.

If the judge finds Sykes to be mentally incompetent, the problem will be only temporary, Peter Morealle, Sykes’ attorney, said on Thursday. The trial would only be postponed until they solve his mental issues.

Sykes stood against the wall with his hands bound tightly in front of him with a deputy standing nearby during today’s hearing. He was noticeably shaking and staring at the floor.

His co-defendants, Kevin Cox, 23, Tyrone Miller, 23, and Emrys John, 21, sat on bench seats nearby with hands chained loosely around their waists. The four were charged with first-degree murder, rape with an object and using a firearm.

On the day of the slaying, the four men allegedly stormed into the victims’ home in French Valley armed with handguns and bound Pietrzak with tape. They demanded he tell where the couple kept cash and valuables the defendants mistakenly thought they had, investigators testified during pretrial hearings.

The defendants stripped his wife in front of him, forced her to dance and raped her with an object hoping to get the husband to give them the information. One of the defendants then shot the victims at close range, and they tried to set the house on fire, investigators testified.

Detectives later found some of the victims’ belongings at the defendants’ homes at Camp Pendleton. They also found shoes that match prints found at the crime scene.

If convicted, they could face the death penalty.