Report: Bartlesville Student Charged With Making Threat Is Competent

A court ordered evaluation says 18-year-old Sammy Chavez is competent to stand trial. He's the Bartlesville student charged with planning a shooting at the high school there.

Competency means two things: you can appreciate the charges against you and you can assist in your own defense.

Sammy Chavez may be competent, but the report says he is also troubled, a kid who has tried to commit suicide a couple times--first, when he was 11, by overdosing, and the second time, when he was around 15, by trying to cut his wrists with a piece of glass.

He's been to a couple of mental health facilities over the years and is currently on medication for anxiety and depression.

3/27/2013 Related Story: Competency Exam Ordered For Bartlesville Student Accused Of Threats

The report says Sammy Chavez exhibits normal speech and eye contact and that his memory is good and his thoughts are logical and understandable. It says he doesn't have hallucinations, but does sometimes hear his name and talks to himself.

He told the psychologist in part, "I talk to myself, so I have this inner thing in my head. I say something, it responds (it sounds) like me."

He said he was taken to Parkside for a couple of weeks when he was in the 6th grade, because he told the school nurse he wanted to kill himself. He's also received treatment at two other locations, for depression, anxiety and a sleep disorder, the report says.

He has been on medications for depression and anxiety, which he is still getting in jail.

When asked if he's currently depressed, he said he is, "kind of depressed and worried about (his) case."

As for school, the report says he was a "B" and "C" student and had been suspended "a few times for just really mouthing off, cussing out a teacher."

Police say Chavez tried to recruit other students last fall to assist him with a plan to lure classmates into the school auditorium, chain the doors shut and start shooting them.

When asked if he was currently suicidal, he said he'd recently thought about cutting, but "I told myself not to, because I know if I do it...they lock me in a room by myself with no blanket and no towel." The report says he admitted he used to cut his arms and legs "real bad" and that it gave him a feeling of "relief." He said the last time he did it was a few days before he was taken to jail.

The report wraps up by saying Chavez doesn't meet the criteria, right now, of someone in need of treatment and is not presently a danger to himself or others, but it says if he used drugs or alcohol, he would need to be re-evaluated.

It did recommend he be carefully monitored through the upcoming legal proceedings. Chavez has his district court arraignment in Bartlesville Wednesday morning.

Chavez remains in the Washington County jail on a $1 million bond.