The mental competency hearing for a man police say shot three Midwestern tourists in town for the Mecum auto auction back in January will remain open to the public, after his defense team filed a motion to have it closed to media.
At a Wednesday hearing on the matter, Judge Wayne Wooten ruled that competency hearings, like the one scheduled for Ahmad Bojeh on Thursday at 10 a.m., are historically open proceedings.
"The public should be able to see court administration be done," the judge said.
The six-page motion, filed by Ninth Circuit Public Defender Melissa Vickers and signed by defense attorney Alesha Smith, asked for a “narrowly tailored closure” when Bojeh’s competency evaluations, medical records, diagnoses, treatment history, psychiatric medications and privileged communications will be discussed. Bojeh, 29, was arrested hours after the shooting of Robert Luis Kraft, 70 of Holland, Mich., and Douglas Joseph Kraft, 68, and James Puchan, 68, of Columbus, Ohio on Jan. 17 outside a home in the Indian Point subdivision off Poinciana Boulevard on the afternoon of Jan. 17, 2026.
In court Wednesday, Smith argued the closure would protect the suspect's ability to have a fair trial, as the type of sealed evaluations that may be discussed Thursday could potentially taint a jury pool and create "prejudice by publicity."
State prosecutor Peter Donnelly argued that negative stories about a triple murder influencing potential jurors is "conclusionary", and that any concerns about jurors who have any bias based on what they already know about the case can be dealt with in the voir dire process of questioning potential jurors.
The report of a psychiatric specialist, from an interview with Bojeh done on June 26, was released by the court this week. The doctor's finding was that Bojeh is fit to stand trial, despite a diagnosis of "Schizophrenia, multiple episodes, in partial remission".
The findings referred back to Bojeh's arrest on an attempted murder charge in a May 2021 incident at a West U.S. 192 Wawa parking lot. After over a year of medical evaluations to determine if he was competent to go through a traditional jury trial, Bojeh instead was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was forced to undergo outpatient mental health treatment and prescribed medication.
