Fatal stabbing suspect ordered to undergo competency exam

A Williamsburg man, who allegedly stabbed one man to death on Jan. 15 and a day later stabbed a Whitley County wrecker service owner in the leg, has been ordered to undergo testing to see if he is competent to stand trial and to determine his criminal responsibility.

Jeffery Cole is charged with murder in the Jan. 15 stabbing death of Curtis Lawson.

Whitley District Judge Cathy Prewitt signed an order on Feb. 12, ordering Jeffery L. Cole Jr., 27, to be transferred to the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center for up to 60 days for mental, psychiatric and psychological examinations.

“If it is determined that treatment or testing is needed for the defendant, then the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center is to supply that treatment and testing,” Prewitt wrote in the order.

She also ordered that except in an emergency where the doctor believes the defendant is a danger to himself or others, forced medication is forbidden without specific order from the court.

Cole is charged with murder in Curtis Lawson’s Jan. 15 death, in addition to second-degree assault for assaulting his mother, Franzine Minchen, and second-degree fleeing or evading police for running off after the stabbing.

Cole is also charged with the attempted murder of Danny Sullivan, who he allegedly stabbed on Jan. 16, and for first-degree fleeing or evading police and resisting arrest when Kentucky State Police caught up with him after Sullivan’s stabbing.

Last month, assistant public advocate Caleb Pittman filed a motion asking for the competency exam and for Cole to be evaluated to see if he is mentally ill, mentally retarded, incompetent to stand trial, was insane at the time of the alleged offense, whether he has any organic brain damage likely to result in abnormal behavior, and whether Cole was suffering from an external emotional disturbance at the time of the alleged offenses.

Cole has a history of psychological issues.

One week before the stabbing, Prewitt denied his request to change his name to Victor Von Frankenstein.

He set up a Go Fund Me page in December that has since been taken down, seeking $500 million to fund his “robotics” company.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison for a Knoxville robbery, and while he was incarcerated squirted urine from a bottle into the face of an officer, and attempted to kill a correctional employee with a homemade pocketknife, according to one prison record.

Prior to his release from prison in 2017, a mental health expert wrote that Cole was diagnosed with delusional disorder grandiose type and believed he could support himself with his inventions when he was released from prison.

Minchen said that her son spent three days in a mental treatment facility after being released from prison last year, and then went to live with his sister in New York.

According to a disability assessment report of Cole that was done in Bronx, New York, in late April 2017, Cole suffers from turrets syndrome, psychosis, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and bi-polar disorder.

The report also noted that Cole has had multiple hospitalizations for mental health.