The man police say shot three Midwestern tourists to death outside a home off Poinciana Boulevard in January is competent to stand trial.
Circuit Judge Wayne Wooten determined Thursday that Ahmad Bojeh, 29, can stand trial for three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm after hearing from a psychologist and psychiatrist who’d met with the suspect. A trial date has not been set; he could be in court next at scheduled status and pretrial hearings on Nov. 17 and 18.
On Jan. 17, Robert Luis Kraft, 70 of Holland, Mich., and Douglas Joseph Kraft, 68, and James Puchan, 68, of Columbus, Ohio were killed in front of a home in the Indian Point subdivision. Bojeh, who’s had multiple run-ins with the law including a 2021 attempted murder charge when police say he fired a gun at vehicles parked at a Kissimmee Wawa, resided in his family’s neighboring house. Bojeh was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2021 case and ordered to go through treatment.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Danzinger testified Thursday, in a hearing that the defense tried and failed to have closed to the public, said Bojeh “has the ability to testify adequately” and meets the competency standards of the court despite taking an antipsychotic medication to treat symptoms hallucinations and delusions that things like television programs and other auditory outlets are speaking to him.
Psychologist Dr. Katherine Oses said Bojeh exhibited “malingering,” where a subject exaggerates mental health concerns and feigns a lack of knowledge or understanding of the charges or the legal process he’s in. The suspect scored extremely low on a battery of questions regarding what he knew of the legal system he’s subject to; both doctors said he gave so many of the wrong answers to trueand- false questions that he had to be consciously doing so, and that someone flipping a coin to answer would have scored much higher.
Oses also noted Bojeh meets the criteria for involuntary confinement in a hospital.
Prosecutors asked the judge to prescribe an injectable medication to eliminate the chance Bojeh wouldn’t take it orally, and to remand him to a hospital if found incompetent. But Wooten ruled the doctors’ reports “convinced the court” Bojeh could proceed as long as the condition is medically managed. Wooten did ask for weekly compliance reports regarding Bojeh’s taking medication at the Osceola County Jail, where he is held on no bond.
