Suspect in Idaho motel murders needed mental health help. Now he could face death penalty
The suspect of murdering a couple who owned a motel near McCall was supposed to be receiving treatment at a mental health hospital when the shooting occurred. Instead, due to a backlogged system, he was released from custody.
John Cody Hart, 28, was accused of fatally shooting 45-year-old Sara Mehen and 47-year-old Rory Mehen earlier this month, when he was a guest at the Hartland Inn in New Meadows, according to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office. Now he could face the death penalty.
Records obtained by the Idaho Statesman showed Hart, who lived around Olympia and Vancouver in Southwest Washington, was expected to be admitted to a mental health hospital in Washington in August, and that he was forbidden to possess firearms.
“The murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity,” Adams County Prosecutor Christopher Boyd wrote in an Oct. 4 notice of intent to seek the death penalty.
Hart told two Washington County sheriff’s detectives that he shot the Mehens after he was caught looking in some of the motel’s drawers for socks that he believed belonged to his children, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant obtained by the Statesman through a public records request.
Over 100 pages of court records obtained by the Statesman showed that Hart had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that he was found incompetent to stand trial earlier this year regarding a separate case. Hart was previously charged with two counts of aggravated assault in Clark County in Southwest Washington, according to court records. That case has not been resolved yet.
Hart’s attorneys have asked Adams County to order a psychiatric evaluation. Robert Chastain, one of Hart’s attorneys, in a motion for psychiatric evaluation wrote that “there is reason to believe Mr. Hart is unable to assist in his own defense and to understand the proceedings against him.”
“An opinion whether Mr. Hart lacks the capacity to make informed decisions about treatment is needed,” Chastain wrote in the motion.
Hart tells police he shot Mehens, affidavit says
At around 12:20 p.m. Oct. 1, an Adams County sheriff’s deputy cleared the Hartland Inn after the couple called the police on Hart, who was told not to rifle through the drawers at the motel, the affidavit said. Less than 25 minutes after police left, a 911 call reported shots had been fired at the inn.
Hart told detectives that the couple “snatched everything from his hands” and made him feel like a thief, the affidavit said. He added that the Mehens reminded him of Bonny and Clyde, and that their police call “made him angry” and “caused him pain.”
According to the affidavit, Hart said that following the “sock incident, he went back to his room and prepared for the worst.”
“He then heard Pope Gregory and John Paul say, are you going to let Bonny and Clyde do that to our family?” the affidavit said. “John (Hart) told me that he didn’t spite those people, and they still have life in their soul, not in their flesh.”
Hart told police he shot the Mehens with a 9mm Glock. He shot Rory Mehens in the head and Sara in the back, Washington County Detective Jorden Doggett said in the affidavit. A 9mm green Glock was recovered near a church in Indian Valley, which is where Hart said he threw it, according to the affidavit.
Hart has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, online court records showed. As of Friday, Hart was in custody at the Canyon County Jail. Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue offered to house Hart to “ease the burden” on the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Canyon County spokesperson Joe Decker told the Statesman.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to the families affected by this tragedy,” the Adams County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Hart previously considered incompetent to stand trial
This isn’t the first time Hart has undergone a mental health evaluation.
In September 2021, Hart was evaluated by a Washington psychologist who diagnosed Hart with schizophrenia and a cannabis use disorder after he was charged with aggravated assault in Clark County, according to a competency report by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
The report includes a 90-minute clinical interview with psychologist Kenneth Dudley and records from Western State Hospital, the Office of Forensic Mental Health, the State of Washington Behavioral Health Reporting System online database and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dudley determined Hart could understand criminal proceedings and was able to assist his attorneys. But from August 2021 to December 2021, Hart was hospitalized at least twice because of competency issues.
Hart’s wife died in 2015 after an automobile accident, and after her death, he began experiencing “auditory hallucinations.” Hart was still serving within the military when he began hearing voices, and according to the report, his commanding officers “noticed he was not performing duties as expected.” He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 2017, the report said.
Hart was prescribed multiple medications, including an anti-depressant and an anti-psychotic. During the interview, Hart told Dudley that some of the medications would make it “hard to think and get words out,” according to the report.
“Were Mr. Hart to discontinue his medication treatment, or otherwise lose contact with his providers at the VA, it is possible, and most likely, that he would experience an increase in the symptoms of his schizophrenia,” Dudley said in the report. If that were to happen, Dudley said he expected Hart would “likely fall below the threshold of ability to aid and assist in his case.”
Hart’s then-attorney Neil Anderson asked for a second opinion.
On March 17, Hart was declared incompetent to stand trial and was supposed to be placed into the custody of the Department of Social and Health Services to “undergo evaluation and treatment” and restore his competency, according to court records.
Judge releases Hart from custody
Hart was never transferred to Western State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital outside of Tacoma, Washington, where he was supposed be hospitalized for treatment.
In 2015, a U.S. District judge ruled that the Department of Social and Health Services must provide competency evaluations in 14 days and restoration services within seven. But in reality, people within jails throughout Washington — from April to June — were waiting roughly nine weeks on average, according to a Forensic Admission and Evaluations report.
Hart waited double that — over 18 weeks — before Judge Robert Lewis released him from jail and placed him on supervised release. Lewis, in multiple court documents, determined that the “failure to promptly” send Hart to receive treatment was “a due process violation” and noted it was “unacceptable.”
Hart never contacted the Clark County District Court Probation and Pretrial Release Office — which was a condition of his release.
On July 22, the day Lewis released Hart, prosecutors told the judge that Hart was expected to be admitted to the hospital in less than two weeks, though Hart had been told he would be admitted multiple times before to no avail, according to court records. Instead, Hart appeared in court one last time Sept. 16 for a review hearing to discuss the status of his competency restoration and wasn’t admitted before surfacing in Idaho.
If Hart would have been admitted in August, he likely would still have been receiving treatment when the murders occurred. Hart was expected to be hospitalized for 90 days, according to a competency order.
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 11:45 AM.
