ORLANDO, Fla. — Medical experts finished testifying Monday in the competency hearing of convicted cop killer Markeith Loyd, but a judge has not determined yet whether to delay his sentencing for the 2017 killing of Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton.
Under Florida law, defendants are found incompetent to proceed when they lack the ability to consult with their attorneys or are unable to understand the proceedings against them.
Loyd, 46, faces a possible death sentence after a 12-person jury unanimously recommended he should be executed for fatally shooting Clayton when she tried to arrest him for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
If she finds him competent to proceed, Circuit Judge Leticia Marques will decide whether to follow the jury’s recommendation or sentence Loyd to life in prison. His sentencing is set for March 3.
On Monday, Dr. Jeffrey Danziger testified for the defense that he interviewed Loyd for about two hours and administered the “gold standard” of psychological tests that determines if someone is faking a mental illness.
“My conclusion, my opinion, is this is someone with a genuine psychotic disorder who was not feigning mental illness,” Danziger said.
Loyd’s delusions, such as his belief that “spirits” tell him facts about the case and how to act in the courtroom, hinder his ability to consult with his defense attorneys, Danziger said.
“He is an intelligent man,” Danziger said, who can talk about his childhood or what he had for dinner, but “anything related to the case, [he] would likely go off into delusional tangents.”
At a hearing earlier this month, another psychologist also testified on behalf of the defense. Dr. Xavier Amador told Marques he diagnosed Loyd with schizophrenia and found him incompetent to proceed.
Amador said Loyd suffers from various delusions, including believing that the judge and prosecutors on his case are “slave masters” intent on killing a “slave,” which is how Loyd refers to himself. Amador also testified about Loyd’s diagnosis of anosognosia, which impairs his ability to recognize his own mental illness.
“My testimony wouldn’t convince him in any way, shape or form that he has a mental illness,” Amador said.
But on Monday, Dr. Katherine Oses, a psychologist called by prosecutors, said she diagnosed Loyd with antisocial personality disorder, not a delusional disorder or psychosis.
After about 90 minutes of evaluating Loyd, Oses concluded that his references to Marques and prosecutors as “creatures” stem from a biased perception of the “nature of the legal process.”
Loyd is competent to proceed with the sentencing hearing, Oses said.
As experts testified Monday, Loyd quietly read through a stack of papers, a stark difference from his profanity-laced rant before testimony at the last hearing. Following his tirade, Loyd was escorted out of the courtroom by deputies and placed in a different room where he could still observe the proceedings.
One of his attorneys told Marques she had observed in a recent interaction that Loyd was “full-blown psychotic.”
“He’s manifested that behavior since the day he was arrested,” the judge said.
Loyd has avoided the death penalty once before when a 2019 jury recommended he be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for his killing his ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, and their unborn child.
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