This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Both prosecutors and the defense are asking a judge to order forced medication of a mentally ill man accused of killing a 57-year-old Bountiful woman more than eight years ago.
Phillip Joseph Simmons, 43, is charged in 2nd District Court with first-degree felony murder for allegedly stabbing Susanne Fry more than 20 times at her home on Jan. 19, 2008.
Since the charges were filed, Simmons has three times been found incompetent to stand trial. But last October, he was found competent by doctors at the Utah State Hospital and returned to the Davis County jail.
Since then, however, Simmons has refused to eat — going from 180 pounds in 2013 to 140 pounds — and suffers from "auditory hallucinations along with paranoid delusions," according to the attorneys, who are asking Judge David Connors to sign an order authorizing forced medication.
When Simmons was returned from the state hospital last fall, he was not prescribed any medication to treat his mental illness, according the proposed order.
Medical professionals at the jail believe that when Simmons is properly medicated, he is more compliant and less likely to be a danger to himself.
"If the defendant is not force medicated, the defendant's actions are life threatening and endangering his health and welfare," according to the proposed order. All voluntary methods of trying to medicate Simmons have failed, the attorneys say.
Prosecutors have said Fry was allowing Simmons to live with her because he was homeless.
Simmons told police the two had argued over a plate of food he had fixed, according to charging documents.
Simmons said that "in his mind he heard the word 'murder,' and a knife came out and then he blacked out," the charges state. "When he came to, there was blood all over and the victim was lying on the floor."