Authorities say a former graduate student accused of fatally stabbing a professor in southern New York isn’t mentally competent to stand trial.
Broome County Judge Joseph F. Cawley Jr. signed an order that will send Abdulsalam al-Zahrani (ab-DUHL'-sah-lam al-zah-RAH'-nee) to a state psychiatric center until he’s deemed competent to face the second-degree murder charge. The decision followed a hearing and review by mental health professionals. Jury selection had been scheduled to start Tuesday.
The 46-year-old al-Zahrani is charged with killing 77-year-old Richard Antoun, an emeritus professor of anthropology at Binghamton University, in 2009.
Police say Al-Zahrani, a Saudi national, attacked Antoun in a building on the campus in suburban Vestal.
The Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin reports that al-Zahrani’s behavior was described as erratic in the weeks before the killing.
