HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A man charged in the shooting death of a Montana sheriff’s deputy can be forcibly medicated after he was found mentally unfit to stand trial, the Montana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
Lloyd Barrus, 63, is charged with accountability to deliberate homicide in the 2017 shooting death of Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore as he pursued Barrus’ vehicle. Barrus faces four other felony charges.
His son, Marshall Barrus, is believed to have pulled the trigger while Lloyd Barrus drove, court records say.
Marshall Barrus died in a shootout with law enforcement officers east of Missoula hours after the deputy was killed and following a pursuit on Interstate 90.
The 6-0 ruling by the high court upheld a ruling last year by District Judge Kathy Seeley that Lloyd Barrus could be given antipsychotic medications via injection - if he refused to take the drugs orally - to render him competent to stand trial and aid his defense.
The state Supreme Court had put a stay on Seeley’s order but lifted it on Wednesday.
Barrus’ attorney, Greg Jackson, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Court records say Barrus was diagnosed with a delusional disorder involving persecution along with mixed personality disorder with antisocial and narcissistic features. He is addicted to alcohol and marijuana, the records say.
After a standoff with police in California in 2000, Barrus was also found mentally unfit to stand trial. The court ordered involuntary medication with antipsychotic drugs. Barrus was restored to competency and convicted of numerous offenses in 2002, court records said.
In Montana, state psychiatrist Dr. Virginia Hill proposed treating Barrus with the same antipsychotic medication, but Barrus refused to comply.
While ordering him to take the medication, Seeley said Barrus would receive the benefit of alleviating “the unhappy and fear-filled state he endures,” and that he might also agree to accept medical treatment for other ailments that he had thus far refused.
In upholding that ruling, high court justices found the state has an interest in gaining a conviction because a criminal commitment to the Montana State Hospital could last for years while a civil commitment could see Barrus released in as little as three months.
The justices also found the medication is not likely to cause significant side effects and alternative treatments were unlikely to achieve the same results.
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