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YOUNGSTOWN -- The man accused in the Aug. 24, 2021, double homicide on Salt Springs Road will face a third round of psychological tests to determine his competency to stand trial.
At a hearing Wednesday before Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge John Durkin, both sides in the case against Jabrae L. Perry, 45, agreed to the judge's opinion that an independent evaluation of Perry from a Canton doctor is necessary.
Durkin ordered the evaluation be completed by Dr. Robert K. Devies, but warned the defense team of attorneys John P. Laczko and Louis DiFabio that they cannot use his bailiff to help them get mental health and other medical records of the defendant to the doctor.
Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin told the judge she wanted to make sure that any reports from the third evaluator be turned over to her office. The defense attorneys assured McLaughlin this would be the case.
Both sides and Durkin read from the June 20, report from Dr. Sylvia O'Bradovich of Summit Psychological Associates Inc. of Akron, who determined that Perry knew the wrongfulness of his actions and would not be a candidate for a not guilty by reason of insanity plea. However, Laczko said that he found "insufficiencies" in O'Bradovich's report and wanted another evaluation, to which Durkin agreed.
O'Bradovich was the second psychologist to examine Perry for competency. Court records show the first examination was conducted in late December at the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio in Austintown.
Perry is charged with one count of aggravated murder, one count of complicity to commit aggravated murder, having weapons while under disability, tampering with evidence and grand theft. If the defendant is found competent, the charges will reach death-penalty level. He is accused of causing the deaths of Ayanna Mills, 49, and her son, Brandon Bell, 28.
They were found shot in a home in the 1200 block of Salt Springs. Mills was dead at the scene. Bell was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where he later died.
Several days after the bodies were found, members of the Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team located Perry in Columbus after investigators gained information that Perry was hiding in a home on Chelford Road there. He was arrested without incident.
The Youngstown Police Department and later the Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team were called to a home on North Bon Air Avenue on the West Side early Aug. 25 after a sport utility vehicle was found parked in front of the house that police said was driven away from the Salt Springs Road home after the two people were shot.
Police said they thought Perry might be there, but when they entered the home, they discovered he was not. Detectives speculated the killings resulted from an apparent domestic disburbance.
Perry, who has been dealing with mental issues, has been convicted of domestic violence three times in Mahoning County since 2008, but the woman he is accused of killing was not the victim in any of the cases, according to court records.
The defendant remains in Mahoning County jail pending the posting of a $500,000 bond.
gvogrin@vindy.com