YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio on Tuesday ruled Nicholas Cunningham, 33, competent to stand trial in the October 2023 killing of Gena M. Wade, 44, at Wade’s rural home on Courtney Road, north of Beloit.

But Cunningham’s attorney, Michael Kivlighan, also asked earlier for his client to be evaluated to determine whether he was sane at the time of the offense. So now he will be evaluated for that, Donofrio said.

During a hearing, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro said Cunningham was sent to Heartland Behavioral Healthcare, a state mental hospital, May 4, 2024, after he was found not competent to stand trial. The goal was to provide treatment and restore him to competency, which was successful.

Dr. Timothy Kantz, a psychiatrist affiliated with Heartland, recently evaluated Cunningham and “concludes Mr. Cunningham is now competent to stand trial,” Maro said.

The prosecution and defense “stipulated” to Dr. Kantz’s findings, meaning there is no need to debate the issue.

Donofrio said he read the report and found that Cunningham is “capable of understanding the nature … of the (criminal) proceedings against him, that he has an understanding of the charges, the seriousness of the charges.”

The next step will be to have Cunningham evaluated to determine sanity, the judge said, adding that a goal will be to “keep it moving at this point.”

Wade’s family members were in the courtroom. Maro explained to them the next steps that will take place after the case was held up for a year because of the need to have Cunningham treated for mental health issues. The criminal case was “stayed” while the treatment was done, according to court documents.

Michelle Hively of Canton, sister of Gena Wade, talked last May about her family’s frustration that Wade was killed despite her sister and other family members having a civil stalking protection order against Cunningham.

She said her family told police in February 2023 that Cunningham, of Alliance, was making threats against her sister and a young female family member. Cunningham is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, violation of a protection order and other charges in Wade’s death.

Hively and her fiance, Richard Hashman, said Hively and her sister had known Cunningham for many years because both women provided care to Cunningham’s mother, Kathy Cunningham, for about 20 years.

“We felt bad for Nicholas. We gave him rides to the gas station,” Hively said.

Hashman said Nicholas Cunningham “didn’t have many friends, so (the sisters) tried to look out for him a little bit.”

But that all changed in late 2022 when Hively and her family learned that Cunningham had a criminal record from 2015 involving a child. Hively said Wade found out that Cunningham was posting “inappropriate” things about the young family member on Facebook, so they “told him to stay away,”

After that, Cunningham started to make death threats, Hively said.