A Hillsborough County circuit judge ordered this week that convicted murderer Carlos Bello can be forced to take psychotropic medications in jail to make him competent for sentencing. Bello was convicted of murdering a police officer in 1987 but has not yet been sentenced as courts have deemed him incompetent at a dozen resentencing hearings over 20 years.
Bello shot and killed a police detective in East Tampa in the summer of 1981 during a marijuana bust. Bello was allegedly selling 50 pounds of marijuana to an undercover detective when other officers burst in to make an arrest. Bello shot the officer several times.
Bello, a Cuban refugee, reportedly spent the previous decade in and out of Cuban mental institutions. After his arrest, he tried to commit suicide, then became catatonic. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and medicated while in the hospital. Upon returning to jail, however, Bello stopped taking his meds and deteriorated.
He was examined at least three times and found incompetent to stand trial. Doctors agreed Bello was mentally ill, but said he took advantage of his illness by exaggerating symptoms. Finally, in 1987, he stood trial and was convicted of murdering one detective and attempting to murder another. At sentencing, he received the death penalty.
Two years later, the Florida Supreme Court threw out the sentence, partly because Bello was made to wear leg shackles in court, which could have prejudiced the jury. The court ordered that Bello be resentenced.
Twenty years and a dozen resentencing hearings later, Bello has yet be resentenced.
Prosecutors argue that, when Bello is in a state hospital taking medications, doctors deem him competent. Once he’s transported to jail, he stops, and the symptoms re-emerge. Until the judge’s ruling this week, the Hillsborough County jail could not force Bello to take his meds.
Bello’s defense attorney said his schizoaffective disorder makes him depressed and hear voices that tell him to starve himself to death. She argued that Bello doesn’t want to take the drugs because they have side effects, including dizziness, internal restlessness and muscle contractions. This case, she argued, didn’t meet special conditions a judge would need to force the medication.
Prosecutors argued to the contrary, saying the case did meet the requirement of a “significant government interest,” a standard which had to be met in order to legal order Bello medicated against his will.
The judge agreed. This may not, however, be the last we hear of this case in the courts. Because it concerns clear constitutional matters, look for this to be appealed before (and/or after) any sentencing hearing occurs.
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