This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Nearly four years after Zachary Cole Weston allegedly stabbed his grandmother to death at the woman's Salt Lake City home, the now-25-year-old man remains incompetent to stand trial.
Weston was charged in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder in the October 2012 slaying of his 84-year-old grandmother, Joyce Dexter.
But within two months of being charged, Weston was sent to the Utah State Hospital for evaluation and treatment after his defense attorneys questioned his ability to distinguish reality from delusion.
On Monday, Weston appeared in court for a review hearing, at which Judge Mark Kouris found that the man's competency had not yet been restored.
Another review hearing is set for Feb. 6.
Weston was 21 on Oct. 3, 2012, when Dexter was found dead in her Avenues home. Police said the woman had been stabbed 111 times and some of her organs removed.
Weston, who has long suffered bouts of paranoid schizophrenia, had trouble understanding the charge against him and the possibility that he could receive the death penalty if found guilty, defense attorneys have said in court filings.
Kristina Swickard, Social Services Coordinator for the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association, which represents Weston, met with him at the Salt Lake County jail and found he appeared psychotic throughout the interview. He suffers from auditory hallucinations and tends to mistake the information "supplied to him by his voices" for reality, according to court records.
Weston also had a history of violent outbursts predating his grandmother's killing.
In August 2012, he was accused of punching a University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute (UNI) employee in the face and another in the ears.
One month later, he swallowed a rock and poured scalding water down his throat. He was admitted as a "psych patient" to LDS Hospital, where he jumped through a window into a nurses station and injured two employees who tried to restrain him, according to police.
In late September, Weston was arrested again. He was charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly hitting his father and biting a woman who was in his Millcreek area home.
After his mother bailed him out, Weston went to stay with his grandmother. She was slain the next day, police said.