Herring withdraws incompetency motion, may plead insanity

BARRE — The woman accused of killing three of her family members and a Department for Children and Families social worker in 2015 has withdrawn a motion to dismiss the case.

Now, Jody Herring may plead insanity to three charges of aggravated murder in the deaths of her relatives and one charge of first-degree murder in the killing of social worker Lara Sobel.

The prosecution and the defense agreed to be ready for trial Aug. 1.

Herring allegedly shot Sobel as she walked to her car after work in a parking lot behind DCF offices in downtown Barre. Herring’s aunt Julie Falzarano and her cousins Rhonda and Regina Herring were found shot to death in their Berlin home the next morning.

At a hearing Monday in Barre a short distance from where the shooting occurred, Herring, shackled at the ankles, sat silently next to defense attorney David Sleigh.

He formally withdrew a motion to dismiss the case, which he filed in May, on the grounds that his client was incompetent to stand trial.

Assistant Attorney General John Treadwell asked Judge John Pacht if he considered the question of Herring’s mental competency to be resolved.

“At this point I have no reason to question competency,” Pacht said.

Sleigh and his client are considering offering a plea of insanity. If a defendant is found to have been insane at the time of the crime, there is a follow-up hearing at which the person may be hospitalized.

Outside the courtroom, Sleigh said that competency, a requirement for a case to proceed to trial, is a “fluid concept.”

“You can be competent one day and not competent the next,” he said.

According to the defense attorney, two psychiatrists who evaluated Herring early in the case found her incompetent, which prompted the motion to dismiss.

However, a psychiatrist who evaluated her for the state found that she was competent. The defense’s expert revisited Herring after that report, and based on her findings Sleigh decided to withdraw the motion.

He declined to comment on Herring’s current mental state.

According to Treadwell, the prosecution will be able to decide if it wants an independent expert to evaluate whether Herring was insane at the time of the crime after a report is filed by the defense.

The case has been pending for a year and a half. Treadwell said he does not believe the proceedings have been “unusually long.”

“Obviously it’s a very, very serious charge,” he said. “The most serious charge that can be brought under Vermont law.”

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