Teen 'Competent' in Teacher's Death

A state district judge has declared a 16-year-old boy competent for trial in the fatal classroom stabbing of an East Texas special education teacher.

The boy is accused of stabbing 50-year-old Todd Henry in the heart in a classroom at John Tyler High School in Tyler on Sept. 23.

Defense attorney Jim Huggler told Judge Floyd Getz in Tyler on Monday that he had spent about 30 hours in discussions with his client. He says most of the youth's answers "are monosyllabic, and he doesn't understand or remember our conversation."

Huggler said the Texas Youth Commission had diagnosed his client as schizophrenic in 2007 or 2008. However, prosecutor Taylor Heaton said a state hospital found the boy to be "alert and oriented, and his thought process seems goal-directed" in May.

• See Also: Texas Teacher Fatally Stabbed in Class

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Information from: Tyler Morning Telegraph, www.tylerpaper.com