ORLANDO, Fla. — A judge found convicted cop killer Markeith Loyd competent to proceed with his March 3 sentencing in the 2017 killing of Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton, according to a Thursday ruling.
In her order, Circuit Judge Leticia Marques said while Loyd suffers from some mental illness, it “does not necessarily equate with incompetence to proceed to sentencing.”
The judge relied on the testimony from three medical experts, two of whom were appointed by the court and one psychologist who testified on behalf of the defense. Two of those experts said Loyd was incompetent with his case.
Marques, though, said she found the evaluation of the third expert, psychologist Katherine Oses, to be “more reliable and therefore more credible.” In a hearing last week, Oses said she diagnosed Loyd with antisocial personality disorder, not schizophrenia or psychotic disorder like the other two experts.
“This Court notes that throughout his trial [Loyd] demonstrated an ability to control himself when he wished to,” Marques wrote. “... This Court finds that Dr. Oses’ observations and opinions are supported by the Court’s extensive observations of [Loyd] over three years. The Court has observed no significant change in [Loyd’s] behavior in that time.”
Loyd, 46, faces a possible death sentence after a 12-person jury unanimously recommended he should be executed for fatally shooting Clayton when she tried to arrest him for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon.
Marques will decide whether to follow the jury’s recommendation or sentence Loyd to life in prison.
At a Feb. 7 hearing, Loyd went on a profanity-laced tirade and had to be escorted out of the courtroom by deputies as his attorneys told the judge a defense expert had found Loyd incompetent.
Clinical psychologist Xavier Amador told Marques Loyd suffers from various delusions, including believing that the judge and prosecutors on his case are “slave masters” intent on killing a “slave,” which is how Loyd refers to himself.
The judge, though, said Amador only focused on whether Loyd could consult with his attorneys and control his conduct in the courtroom — and did not consider any other factors of incompetence under Florida law.
“Amador’s findings of incompetence based on Defendant’s actions or words during the trial are not supported by the record nor by the Court’s observations,” Marques said in her order.
Marques said the second expert who found Loyd incompetent, psychiatrist Jeffrey Danziger, opined that Loyd can’t communicate with his attorneys or understand the present case against him because he remains fixated on his conviction in the Dixon killing.
“To accept Dr. Danziger’s opinion, the Court would have to find that [Loyd] ... is not competent because he simply refuses to accept his guilt and espouses a defense theory that has been rejected by two separate juries,” the judge wrote.
Loyd’s sentencing will be the second time he’s faced the death penalty. He avoided capital punishment once before when a 2019 jury recommended he be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for killing Dixon and her unborn child.
______
