People v. Shields CA1/3

BACKGROUND

In January 2021, the People charged Shields with second degree robbery (§ 211) and giving false information to a peace officer (§ 148.9, subd.

All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless

otherwise indicated.

1 (a)). At that time, Shields also had pending charges in two separate cases for arson of a structure or forest (§ 451, subd. (c)) and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury (§ 245, subd. (a)(4)), with an enhancement for having inflicted great bodily injury upon another person (§ 12022.7, subd. (a)). Within the next couple of months, the court declared a doubt as to Shields’s mental competence in all three pending criminal matters. The court suspended criminal proceedings and, pursuant to section 1369, subdivision (a), designated two mental health professionals to evaluate Shields’s “mental disorder, if any, [and his] ability or inability to understand the nature of the criminal proceedings or assist counsel in the conduct of a defense in a rational manner as a result of a mental disorder.” The parties stipulated that the court could decide the issue of Shields’s mental competency based solely upon the reports of the…