The woman accused of stealing an SUV outside a D.C. hospital with an ill patient in the passenger seat was found incompetent to stand trial Tuesday.
Kayla Kenisha Brown, 22, of Southeast, is accused of crashing the stolen car into a downtown D.C. building in early June. The passenger, 55-year-old Leslie Marie Gaines, of Northeast D.C., died shortly after the crash.
Brown, who has been charged with carjacking, was committed Tuesday to Saint Elizabeths Hospital for treatment for “restoration of competence,” according to court documents. Another hearing regarding her ability to stand trial will be held Aug. 16.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Heidi Pasichow ruled that Brown “is likely to attain competence in the foreseeable future, or additional time is necessary to assess whether the defendant is likely to attain competence in the foreseeable future.”
According to court documents, Brown was taken to Washington Hospital Center on June 3 after her parents told police she had possibly taken a drug and had been acting “crazy” for days.
However, officers left the emergency room around 12:45 p.m. that day, and at some point, according to police, she left her family.
Meanwhile, Gaines, the passenger of the carjacked vehicle, had just finished a physical therapy session at the hospital’s rehab center when she reportedly began feeling sick, according to court documents.
Gaines’ daughter drove her over to the ER and left Gaines in the vehicle, with the keys inside and the engine running, while she went inside to get help with moving her mother into a wheelchair.
That’s when authorities say Brown entered the SUV, got behind the wheel and drove away with the Gaines still in the passenger seat, according to police.
Brown’s defense lawyers have argued that what transpired does not fit the definition of carjacking, since the SUV was left unattended.
In D.C., a vehicle theft is defined as a carjacking when its in the “immediate possession of the victim,” and when taken by force or threat.
WTOP’s Scott Gelman and Jessica Kronzer contributed to this report.
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