The prosecutor in a double homicide case against a St. Stephen’s teenager has asked for extra time to review the teen’s psychiatric evaluation.
Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun on Tuesday asked a state district court in Fremont County for 10 extra days to review the psychiatric evaluation of Brandon Donald Monroe, charged with felony murder and first-degree murder in the January 2019 murders of Jocelyn Watt and Rudy Perez, both 30.
Monroe, 19, was charged in December in the murders.
Watt and Perez were found by Watt’s relatives on the bedroom floor of a Riverton home. Both were killed by multiple gunshot wounds to their heads.
Monroe was 16 at the time. He and his alleged accomplices Korbin Headley, Patrick SunRhodes, and Bryce Teran remained uncharged in the crime for nearly three years after it occurred.
Facing life in prison but not the death penalty due to the fact he was a minor at the time of the alleged crime, Monroe asked a state district court judge in January to pause his case so that he could have his mental health tested.
The results of that test are not publicly available.
LeBrun asked for the extra time to review and possibly dispute the the test results.
One day later, District Court Judge Jason Conder granted LeBrun’s request “to seek (a) second evaluation opinion” or to seek other rebuttals.
In Wyoming, defendants cannot be arraigned until they are sound of mind.
A defendant who is found not to be of sound mind can still be held in state custody if he poses a risk to himself or others, but he may be released if and when he no longer poses a risk, and if there’s no remedy to make him sane enough to be arraigned.
Meth And a Gun
According to an affidavit filed on Dec. 10, Monroe, SunRhodes, Teran and Headley were partying together in a vehicle on the Wind River Indian Reservation overnight Jan. 3 and 4, 2019.
SunRhodes was 14; Headley was 15; Teran was 21.
Patrick SunRhodes, whose interview is detailed in the document, recalled Monroe leaving the vehicle to retrieve methamphetamine and a gun from a house.
Monroe, SunRhodes said, used the methamphetamine, then the four reportedly drove to the nearby town of Riverton and parked in an alley behind Watt’s home.
Monroe is reported to have said he needed to “take care of business.”
“Come wit’ me (expletive),” Monroe said to SunRhodes, according to the latter.
SunRhodes followed Monroe to the house and, as he related to Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Agent Juliet Fish, watched Monroe shoulder open the side door to the house.
In the house, SunRhodes heard multiple gunshots from a bedroom into which Monroe had gone.
When SunRhodes entered the room, court document state, he saw Monroe straddling a man, who was lying in the bedroom closet. The man lifted a hand as if to struggle, SunRhodes recalled.
“Get the (expletive) off me,” Monroe is reported to have said.
SunRhodes said he saw Monroe shoot the man in the head, then pick up a shotgun from the closet floor. He also said he saw a woman, lying beyond the bed, shaking on the floor.
SunRhodes ran back to the truck; Monroe followed him, court documents continue.
“Go, man go,” SunRhodes recalled Monroe saying to Teran, who had been driving.
