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Judge Requests More Info For Mental Evaluation


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A Guernsey County Common Pleas Court judge needs more information before deciding the competency of a 21-year-old man accused of killing his foster father.

Judge David Ellwood ruled Tuesday more evidence will be needed to permit a second mental evaluation for Perry Buco, who was arrested on murder charges in April.

Buco is charged with the killing of 47-year-old Robert "Chris" Caples, the Director of the Thompkins Child and Adolescent Services Center in Cambridge.

Police say Caples was found by police beaten to death and hidden in a freezer in his home on Beatty Avenue on April 6.

A prosecutor requested a second evaluation after a psychiatrist found Buco suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and did not know the error of his actions at the time of the crime.

Ellwood wants to review the doctor's qualifications and testimony experience before deciding on another evaluation.

Buco has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to these murder charges.

Buco will be held at the Timothy B. Mortiz Maximum Security Psychiatric Facility until a November 6 hearing to further determine his psychiatric status.