Competent to stand trial- that’s the ruling from a federal judge for a man accused of threatening people with an illegal gun and explosives.
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News Center 7 first reported on the search warrant raid involving police, the bomb squad, and the FBI at his apartment in south Montgomery County in June.
Tony Houston was back inside a U.S. District Courtroom in Dayton Monday for the first time in more than two months.
Inside the courtroom, we learned a psychologist saw Houston over two days in mid-June.
The doctor wrote in his report that it was his opinion that Houston is capable of understanding the court proceedings against him and helping his lawyer in his own defense, and is competent to stand trial.
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Federal prosecutors and Houston’s defense lawyer said they agreed he’s competent to stand trial, a ruling the judge made.
At a hearing in June, that same judge had expressed concern about Houston’s mental status and ordered the evaluation.
“The bomb squad, a big truck, was out there ... And I thought, ‘Man, this is some serious stuff,” Cheryl Dodson told News Center 7 in June.
Dodson called after watching the search-warrant raid at her apartment complex in June.
“I’ve been here 14 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.
Houston has been federally charged with illegally possessing a firearm and destructive devices.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dayton says Houston was not registered to possess the short-barreled shotgun or the pipe bombs he had.
Federal charging documents show someone in Germantown told officers that when they did not return some stuff they’d borrowed from Houston, he threatened them after showing them pipe bombs and a sawed-off shotgun inside his apartment.
Then, investigators wrote that two people told them while they were in a backyard at the complex they yelled at a dog that approached them to get away.
Right after that, investigators said Houston came up to them with “a sawed-off shotgun” and “expressed displeasure at them for chastising his dog.”
At his next hearing, the judge will decide whether Houston will stay in jail or be let out before his trial.
In court filings, federal prosecutors have previously argued they think he should stay locked up.
We will continue this story.
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