Joseph Oberhansley an accused Indiana cannibal killer who ate parts of his dead girlfriend’s body is deemed mentally component to stand trial after previously ruled to be severely disturbed.
An Indiana man accused of raping, killing and eating parts of his ex-girlfriend’s dead body has been deemed mentally competent to stand trial.
The determination, at behest of a state psychiatrist contradicts a former ruling, which saw Joseph Oberhansley, 35, of Jeffersonville being committed at the Logansport State Hospital, when a judge last October ruled the boyfriend wasn’t competent to stand trial for the 2014 killing of then 46 year old girlfriend, Tammy Jo Blanton.
Prosecutors allege Oberhansley breaking into the Jeffersonville home of Blanton in September 2014, where he sexually assaulted her, fatally stabbed her and ate parts of her body.
‘This matter has been going on for four years now, and it’s high time that the victim’s family saw justice done,’ Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Jeremy Mull told the Courier Journal after Thursday’s hearing.
The letter from the psychiatrist filed with Clark County Circuit Court noted that Oberhansley’s competency being restored since being committed last October undergoing competency restoration. In some of his early court appearances after his arrest, the accused cannibal killer had outbursts where he insisted he was the Greek God, Zeus, WAVE3 reported.
Noted a police report at the time of Oberhansley’s 2014 arrest,‘suspect further admitted to cooking a section of her brain and eating it.’
Oberhansley’s attorneys responded to the new mental evaluation decree by requesting to have a month to talk with him and form an opinion on his competency.
Previously, he’d been classified as having a severe psychological disorder.
‘He is suspicious, paranoid, uncommunicative, and agitated,’ his lawyers previously wrote to the court, saying there is a ‘complete breakdown’ in communication between them and Oberhansley.
Joseph Oberhansley mental competency: ‘I’m so tired of dealing with all this stuff, I just want to be executed’.
During the hearing, Oberhansley who maintains he didn’t kill his ex but two other men did, spoke up, telling the judge he needed to fire his attorneys.
‘They’re trying to control my thoughts,’ he said in court. ‘They’re trying to control my mind.’
Adding, ‘I’m so tired of dealing with all this stuff, I just want to be executed’.
Judge Vicki Carmichael told him he needed to work with his attorneys, and scheduled another hearing on Sept. 21 to discuss the matter.
Prosecutors have previously said they will seek the death penalty for Blanton’s killing. Before his arrest in 2015, Oberhansley was free on parole for a previous killing when he was a teenager.
The News and Tribune reports Judge Carmichael will have the final say on whether the competency ruling will be upheld.
At present, Oberhansley is charged with murder, rape and abuse of a corpse.
