PORT ANGELES — Abdinjib Ibraham, the prison inmate who allegedly tried to kill a Clallam Bay Corrections Center deputy in 2016, is not competent to stand trial, a judge has ruled.
Ibraham, 31, was ordered Tuesday to undergo competency restoration at Western State Hospital for the second time in as many years.
Ibraham is charged in Clallam County Superior Court with second-degree attempted murder for a brutal attack on corrections Deputy Terry Breedlove on the morning of Jan. 25, 2016.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said Ibraham used a metal stool to repeatedly strike the 51-year-old Forks man on the back of the head until he was unconscious in a pool of blood.
Breedlove sustained a traumatic brain injury in the attack.
“Medical intervention was necessary to prevent death or further brain damage,” Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Anderson wrote in the affidavit for probable cause.
Ibraham was charged by the state Attorney General’s Office last June. He was ordered to undergo competency restoration at the state psychiatric hospital in August.
Dr. Virginia Klophaus opined in a Feb. 27 report that Ibraham appeared to have the capacity to understand the nature of the proceedings against him and to assist in his own defense, the state standards for competency.
Ibraham was returned to the Washington Corrections Center near Shelton, where he is serving time for a prior conviction from King County.
Defense attorney Harry Gasnick of Clallam Public Defender raised subsequent concerns that Ibraham’s psychosis had returned, court papers said.
Dr. Barry Ward, a forensic psychologist with the state Department of Social and Health Services, re-evaluated Ibraham and recommended Tuesday further restoration treatment at Western State Hospital.
“Mr. Ibraham is acutely psychotic with overlaid signs of mania,” Ward wrote in the report.
“In his current psychotic state, Mr. Ibraham lacks the ability to rationally assist in his defense, or even understand his legal peril.”
Assistant Attorney General John Hillman did not dispute Ward’s finding in a Tuesday court hearing.
Superior Court Judge Brent Basden found “ample evidence” that Ibraham is not competent to stand trial and ordered him undergo 90 days of competency restoration.
A review hearing was set for May 31.
“This time at Western State,” Basden said, “there needs to be some attention paid to the issue that his competency was restored.”
“He was transferred back to the prison,” Basden said.
“At that point it fell apart, maybe because of a change in medication, maybe some other reason. I don’t think that we know.”
Gasnick said he would ask Western State officials to address the circumstances that led to the deterioration of Ibraham’s competency.
Ibraham “responded quickly” to treatment during his previous hospitalization, Ward said.
“His symptoms did not completely abate, but were well managed,” Ward wrote in his report.
”Given his fear of being poisoned, it is possible that Mr. Ibraham is not taking his medication, or that his current regimen is no longer sufficient.”
Breedlove was working alone in Clallam Bay Corrections Center’s Unit G, which houses about 90 convicted felons, when he was attacked, Anderson said.
Ibraham had recently returned to the medium-security unit after spending time in solitary confinement for an alleged altercation with another corrections officer, Anderson said.
Ibraham allegedly removed a six-pound metal stool seat from his cell and used it to repeatedly strike Breedlove in the back of the head “with as much force as he could muster,” Anderson said.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Ibraham was alleged to have said: “I was going for the kill.”
Investigators said other inmates came to Breedlove’s aid.
A CT scan revealed that Breedlove’s brain had shifted 6 millimeters to one side of his skill due to pressure caused by a subdural hematoma.
“Doctors drilled holes in Breedlove’s skull to drain the blood from his cranium and relieve the pressure on his brain,” Anderson said.
Breedlove has been diagnosed with concussive syndrome and a traumatic brain injury, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Ibraham, who was born in Somalia and immigrated to the United States at age 10, was sentenced in King County on four counts of vehicular assault, driving under the influence, second-degree taking a motor vehicle without permission and first-degree robbery.
He is scheduled to be released in that case in 2021.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
