BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE—A judge determined that defendants in two Starke criminal cases were not competent to proceed.
Robert Lee Shipes and Daniel Clifton Dail were ordered to appear at competency reviews later this year.
Shipes was arrested by Starke police on Sept. 16, 2021, for shoplifting televisions and other merchandise from a Starke retailer.
While police were investigating the theft, they received a tip that the defendant had just left a Starke pawn shop where he sold two televisions for $130. They later arrested the Fernandina Beach resident at a U.S. 301 motel.
During a competency hearing in March, Judge James Colaw ordered another competency review for Shipes in September.
Dail, 47, was arrested by Starke police and Bradford deputies on Feb. 4, 2020, for aggravated abuse of an elderly person, battery and resisting an officer.
According to court papers, Dail hit and choked 86-year-old Ruth O. Stewart on Starke’s Washington Street. The victim told police Dail also pushed her down onto a sidewalk injuring her head and possibly breaking her elbow.
Stewart’s son told police the defendant also attacked him.
The 86-year-old died the following June, and prosecutors filed additional charges of manslaughter.
Based on evaluations of a psychologist and psychiatrist, Colaw extended the defendant’s conditional release to mental health care provider Meridian for continued treatment and evaluation.
Colaw also scheduled another competency review for Dail in July.
