Harris
JENNINGS COUNTY — A woman accused of attempted murder in a stabbing attack at a Jennings County intermediate care facility has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Jennings Circuit Court Judge Murielle Bright determined that Adrianna Harris, 18, is not mentally competent to stand trial and ordered her committed to the Indiana Division of Mental Health at least temporarily.
“The defendant presently does not have comprehension sufficient to understand the nature of these criminal actions against her, and to make a defense thereto,” Bright states in the order.
Bright issued the decision after receiving reports from two Indianapolis doctors she had appointed to perform separate examinations to determine whether Harris was legally insane at the time of the alleged offenses.
Harris was initially charged in August with six felonies, including two counts each of attempted murder, aggravated battery and intimidation stemming from a stabbing that resulted in two people being airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital for treatment, according to court records.
She was later charged with eight other felonies after allegedly attacking at least eight Jennings County Jail officials in three separate incidents. Jennings County prosecutors had filed two separate criminal cases against Harris since her initial arrest.
Bright gave the Indiana Division of Mental Health 90 days to certify whether Harris has a “substantial probability of attaining comprehension” sufficient to understand the nature of the criminal charges against her “within the foreseeable future.”
“If substantial probability of comprehension is not found, the division shall initiate regular commitment proceedings,” Bright states in the order. “If substantial probability of comprehension is found, the department shall retain custody of the defendant until such comprehension is found, for a period not to exceed six months after defendant’s admittance.”
A probable cause affidavit alleges that Jennings County Sheriff deputies were dispatched to a Benchmark Human Services facility at around 6 p.m. on Aug. 10 in response to a reported stabbing.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they allegedly found two males subduing the suspect, who was later identified as Harris, on the ground outside the facility. The deputies also observed a large kitchen knife covered in what appeared to be blood laying on the sidewalk.
The deputies were able to detain Harris with her hands behind her back using handcuffs. The two males told the deputies that the stabbing victims were inside the facility.
“Upon making entry, I observed a path of blood inside the residence at the front door that led all throughout the inside of the residence,” one of the deputies states in the affidavit.
The deputies found two injured females inside the residence, one with lacerations on both of her legs and another with lacerations on her left bicep and the left side of her back. The deputies applied tourniquets on the wounds.
A few hours later, Harris allegedly told a detective that she had just been transferred to the Benchmark Human Services a few days earlier after residing at a residential treatment facility in Lafayette with her younger sister for around two years.
The transfer to the Benchmark facility resulted in Harris being separated from her sister, which allegedly “was a significant source of emotional distress for her,” the affidavit states.
On the morning of the stabbing, Harris viewed a video of her younger sister on a television in her room and allegedly “got really upset and began throwing objects within the facility.”
She then allegedly grabbed a knife from the dishwasher and began chasing the other residents outside the facility, where she allegedly stabbed two females.
Harris allegedly told the detective that she had been planning the attack “for a while.”
After the stabbings, the other residents allegedly locked her out of the facility. Harris then allegedly climbed a fence in the backyard to get to the front of the house. Staff members attempted to restrain her until law enforcement arrived.
“When questioned about her intentions, Ms. Harris first advised she wanted to hurt them at first, then changed her answer to wanting to try and kill them,” the affidavit states. “…She advised, ‘I think they should be dead’ and … advised she would try and kill them again if she got out.”
A couple months later, Harris allegedly attacked several Jennings County Jail officials in three separate incidents, according to probable cause affidavits. During the incidents, Harris allegedly scratched one jail official with her nails to the point that she drew blood, pulled clumps of hair from another official’s head and struck other officials in the head.
One jail was taken to Ascension St. Vincent hospital and was diagnosed with a concussion.
She also allegedly told a jail official “I want to (expletive) kill you” and was observed at one point pacing back and forth in her cell punching herself in the head, according to court records.
The jail’s mental health professional also reported that Harris at another point “ripped offer her medical mesh underwear and threw them on the floor before playing in her own feces,” according to court records.
