A man accused of fatally stabbing a fellow patient at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital on New Year’s Eve 2019 is scheduled for trial next month.
Rashid A. Davis, 30, will be tried virtually before Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor, the judge said on Monday.
Last year Davis rejected an offer that would have sent him to prison for 30 years in exchange for a guilty plea to murder. His attorney at the time indicated an insanity defense would be presented.
It would be the second time for Davis, who was declared insane after stabbing an elderly Newark man to death in 2014.
At Greystone, a 504-bed hospital on the Morris Plains/Parsippany border, Davis allegedly used an exacto blade in his room to slash patient “S.S” in the neck and upper body on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve in 2019.
Davis observed Monday’s virtual hearing via video link from the Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton. The Union Township man is represented by attorney Alexander Pope.
Morris County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Schellhorn Jr. told the judge he intends to present evidence from expert reports.
The case was delayed by the pandemic, which hindered efforts by experts to examine the defendant at the Ann Klein center, according to attorneys at previous hearings.
This will be a non-jury trial. The August date awaits confirmation by the Ann Klein center, regarding the availability of the center’s video link, and by the victim’s mother.
