Report Finds Homicide Defendant Competent, Hearing Postponed

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A psychological evaluation found a 60-year-old man accused of murdering a radio host competent to stand trial, but an official ruling in mental health court on July 17 was delayed to allow counsel time to review the new report.

Richard Sylvester Green is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and three counts of firearm use in a felony violent crime in connection to the shooting of 57-year-old radio host and gospel singer Tyra Phillips Womack outside her home on the 2400 block of Albion Avenue on June 10, 2020.

A six-month status update found that Green is now competent to stand trial but should remain in Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in order to maintain competency. Green has been held there since Nov. 23, 2021, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Gale E. Rasin remarked at the beginning of the defendant’s hearing.

However, Judge Rasin did not make an official ruling on Green’s competency as the new report was submitted only one day before the defendant’s July 17 appearance. The court granted counsel two weeks to review the new report, scheduling Green for another appearance in mental health court on July 31.

Green was displeased with the delay and insisted that he had been found competent each time he had been evaluated by doctors. Judge Rasin, who, according to the Maryland Judiciary website, first found Green incompetent to stand trial on Oct. 6, 2021, reminded the defendant that she had never found him competent during his previous appearances.

According to defense attorney Sharon Bogins-Eberhart, who was standing in for Green’s public defender, Janet Andersen, the change in the defendant’s level of competency was recent, as Andersen did not believe Green to be competent when she spoke with him in June.

Green denied this and told the court that Anderson would have no way of knowing as she had not once contacted him since he was admitted to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in November 2021, despite Bogins-Eberhart’s insistence that Andersen speaks with Green at least once a month.