Judge: Hyde not fit to stand trial

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The mentally ill gunman who killed five people, including two Albuquerque police officers four years ago, has been found for the second time to be incompetent to stand trial.

John Hyde is serving a 179 year sentence at the state mental hospital for the murders of Albuquerque police officers Michael King and Richard Smith, state transportation worker Bennie Lopez and motorcycle shop employees Garret Iverson and David Fisher.

In a Bernalillo County district courtroom Friday, state mental hospital doctor Dr. Douglas Davis who evaluated Hyde, told the court Hyde’s chronic paranoid schizophrenia interferes with his ability to understand court proceedings and makes him incompetent to be on trial.

Hyde was not present in the courtroom for the hearing.

Dr. Davis said even though Hyde is under the best medical and mental treatment he could receive, his competency level has not changed since his last hearing two years ago.

Dr. Davis said Hyde suffers from a debilitating form of paranoid schizophrenia and it is likely he will never get better.

“He's at the best level of functioning that I think he's going to reach ever, right now,” Dr. Davis testified. “He still shows lots of symptoms of mental illness. In other words, he's treated to the best of our ability over the past two years and that's where he is.”

Judge Albert “Pat” Murdoch agreed with the doctor and ruled that Hyde is incompetent to stand trial and is a danger to society.

Hyde will remain in the state mental hospital in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

In August 2009, four years after the murders, the Albuquerque Police Department named its new Westside substation after the fallen officers.