NEWARK — Last week, an attorney for Lee Evans, charged in the slayings of five Newark boys missing since 1978, filed a six-page opposition to a motion by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office seeking to force the defendant to undergo a mental competency exam before his May 2 trial. Last year, Evans, 57, and his cousin, Philander Hampton, 54,...
Lee Anthony Evans, accused in 1978 Newark killings, makes a short appearance in Essex County Court in Newark in this December 2010 file photo.NEWARK — Last week, an attorney for Lee Evans, charged in the slayings of five Newark boys missing since 1978, filed a six-page opposition to a motion by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office seeking to force the defendant to undergo a mental competency exam before his May 2 trial.
Last year, Evans, 57, and his cousin, Philander Hampton, 54, were charged in the alleged slayings. Prosecutors say Evans and Hampton lured the boys into an abandoned Newark house, locked them in a closet, then set the house on fire. The boys' bodies were never found.
The prosecutor’s office said statements Evans made in the press and his decision to visit law enforcement agencies to explain his allegations, prompted the move.
But his attorney, Olubukola Adetula, called the state’s motion a strategic move, and not based in law. Evans was within his rights when he spoke critically about "governmental and prosecuting authorities," Adetula said. That does not make him "insane or incompetent, not even if he exercised those rights against the advice and wishes of his legal counsel."
After he was released on bail last summer, Evans twice visited the Springfield Police in Union County as well as the FBI in Newark, to talk about his corruption allegations. He also gave extensive interviews to The Star-Ledger, which the prosecutor’s office claims "exhibit signs of a dissociative psychological process."
But in his Feb. 3 letter, Adetula said allegations do not supersede his client’s presumption of sanity.
Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello will hear the motion Monday.
Previous coverage:
• Judge sets date for trial of two men accused in decades-old slaying of Newark teens
• Man charged in slaying of 5 Newark teens in '78 sees contradictions in accounts of fateful night
• 1978 murder case of five Newark teens
• Trial date set for two men accused in 1978 slayings of 5 Newark teens
• Trial date may be set in decades-old slayings of 5 Newark teens case
• Judge sets trial date for suspects in decades-old Newark teens slayings
• Man charged in 1978 Newark slayings appears in court with new attorney, judge postpones hearing
• Judge delays hearing for Irvington man accused of 1978 slayings of Newark boys
• Lee Evans, accused of killing five Newark teens in 1978, returns to court today
• Lee Evans, accused in 1978 Newark slayings, gets new attorney