Current:Home > reviewsMan accused of killing Purdue University dormitory roommate found fit for trial after hospital stay -FutureFinance
Man accused of killing Purdue University dormitory roommate found fit for trial after hospital stay
View
Date:2025-04-13 07:30:37
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — A man charged with murder in the stabbing death of his Purdue University dormitory roommate has been found competent to stand trial, court records show.
Doctors at Logansport State Hospital found Ji Min Sha competent for trial after months of treatment, a Tuesday court filing shows.
Sha “has attained the ability to understand the proceedings and assist in the preparation of his defense,” hospital Superintendent Bethany Schoenradt wrote in a letter to Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Sean Persin.
The judge in April found Sha unfit for trial in the death of 20-year-old Varun Manish Chheda of Indianapolis in October 2022. Persin at that time found that Sha had reported hallucinations and experienced chronic psychosis and delusional thoughts while in jail.
Persin directed the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office to take Sha to the county jail.
A status conference in the case has been scheduled for Sept. 29.
A telephone message seeking comment was left for Sha’s lead attorney in the case.
Sha, a cybersecurity major from Seoul, South Korea, faces one count of murder in the October 2022 slaying of Varun Manish Chhedad, 20, of Indianapolis. The two lived in McCutcheon Hall on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, about 65 miles (104 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis.
Prosecutors allege that Sha stabbed Chheda, a data science major, several times in the head and neck with a folding knife that officers found on the floor near the chair where Chheda’s body was discovered.
Court records show Sha has told police he believes “he is extensively involved in international espionage and is a former CIA operative.”
Purdue Police Chief Lesley Wiete has said Sha called police early on Oct. 5, 2022, and told them his roommate was dead in their dorm room. Officers who arrested Sha found him wearing clothes with blood on them, prosecutors have said. An autopsy found that Chheda had died of “multiple sharp-force traumatic injuries.”
veryGood! (53)
Related
- Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
- The 'Margaritaville' snail: meet the new species named after a Jimmy Buffett song
- Filing period for New Hampshire presidential primary opens
- Misleading videos alleging to show Israel-Hamas conflict circulate on X
- Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
- Finnish president says undersea gas and telecom cables damaged by ‘external activity’
- Kendall Jenner Recreates Fetch Mean Girls Scene in Must-See TikTok
- Search for nonverbal, missing 3-year-old boy in Michigan enters day 2 in Michigan
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Fiery crash during prestigious ballooning race leaves 2 Polish pilots with burns and other injuries
Ranking
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- RHOC's Tamra Judge Slams Disgusting Ozempic Claims After Suffering Intestinal Obstruction
- Misleading videos alleging to show Israel-Hamas conflict circulate on X
- The future of electric vehicles looms over negotiations in the US autoworkers strike
- Where will Elmo go? HBO moves away from 'Sesame Street'
- University of Wisconsin System will change its name to The Universities of Wisconsin by 2024
- Nobel Prize in economics goes to Harvard professor Claudia Goldin for research on workplace gender gap
- Suspect fatally shot by San Francisco police after crashing car into Chinese Consulate
Recommendation
The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
West Maui starts reopening to tourists as thousands still displaced after wildfires: A lot of mixed emotions
A conversation with Nobel laureate Claudia Goldin (Update)
Cambodia records second bird flu death in a week, third this year, after no cases since 2014
What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
6.3 magnitude earthquake hits Afghanistan days after devastating weekend quakes
Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton is in intensive care with pneumonia
Why Meghan Markle Says She's Frightened for Her Kids' Future in a Social Media Age