After five years of treatment, Utah man accused of killing his grandmother is still not competent for trial

Even after five years at the Utah State Hospital, a Utah man accused in the violent death of his grandmother still hears voices in his head.

Zachary Cole Weston believes he is a god, a judge wrote in a Thursday finding, or maybe a fallen angel.

Weston also believes he can read the judge’s mind, 3rd District Judge Mark Kouris wrote, and that his own thoughts are being broadcast into the courtroom.

And while Weston has made strides in understanding the legal process and his attorney’s role in helping him, Kouris found that the defendant is still not competent to stand trial for the October 2102 slaying of his 84-year-old grandmother, Joyce Dexter.

But the judge ruled that it’s still possible that Weston’s competency could be restored. A review hearing was set for May 2019.

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. Defense attorneys also have noted that Weston appears psychotic in interviews.

Weston has 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 and charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly hitting his father and biting a man who was visiting at the Millcreek area home where the father and son were living.

After his mother bailed him out, Weston went to stay with his grandmother. She was killed the next day, police said.