PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County Superior Court judge will be given a proposal for a mental evaluation of a Port Angeles man accused of trying to kill his 57-year-old, non-diabetic step-uncle with a potentially deadly dose of insulin.
John Hayden, with Clallam Public Defender, said in a court hearing Tuesday that he wants his client Robbie Wayne Davis, 39, to have a mental evaluation because Hayden said he has concerns over Davis’ mental competency.
“I will present a [proposed] order in the next couple of days to get an evaluation done,” Hayden said.
“I think it makes sense to do that now.”
Davis was charged last week with one count each of first-degree attempted premeditated murder and first-degree assault, both with an aggravated circumstance.
Police said Davis injected Richard Haynes, who has Down syndrome, with insulin while the 57-year-old was hospitalized June 15 at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.
Superior Court Judge George Wood set Davis’ next hearing date for 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Davis remained Tuesday in the Clallam County jail on $25,000 bail.
According to police accounts, a nurse found Haynes with dangerously low blood sugar about an hour after Davis left Haynes’ room at 9:18 p.m. June 15.
Haynes was treated with medication and is recovering, police said. They said he had been hospitalized for a different ailment.
OMC video surveillance footage shows that Davis had been the only visitor to Haynes’ hospital room between 8:43 p.m. and 9:18 p.m. that day, police said.
Davis lives with Haynes and other family members on North Baker Street in Port Angeles.
One of the family members is an insulin-dependent diabetic and so needles and insulin are in the home, police said.
During the investigation, police found Haynes, who medical personnel said has the intellect of a 3-year-old, had been hospitalized for extreme hypoglycemia two times since December.
On April 4, county sheriff’s deputies investigated a report of Haynes being admitted to OMC for conditions related to hypoglycemia.
Haynes’ doctor said a test March 22 showed abnormally low blood sugar “and was confirmatory of injected insulin.”
Sheriff’s Office investigators “suspected that a member of Haynes’ family had administered insulin to him,” according to the Port Angeles police report filed in the attempted murder case, but were unable to develop probable cause to show that any one person was responsible for the injection based on insufficient evidence.
Haynes was also checked into OMC Dec. 12 with dangerously low blood sugar, police said.
A doctor told police that this “most certainly caused at least some degree of permanent brain damage,” the report said, adding that the investigation into that incident is pending.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
