A judge on Monday ordered a competency evaluation for a Vermont man charged last week with beating his father to death and seriously injuring his mother with a baseball bat.
Jordan Lawyer, 29, entered not guilty please to second degree murder, aggravated assault, and eluding police, the VT Digger reported.
Prosecutors say Lawyer bashed his father, 54-year-old Todd Lawyer, to death Friday morning at their home in Enosburgh. He severely injured his 58-year-old mother, Robin Lawyer, in the attack, and then fled the scene in his parents’ Jeep Grand Cherokee, charging documents say.
He later crashed the Jeep into another vehicle and was taken into custody, Police found a bloody baseball bat in the vehicle.
Judge Allison Arms ordered the younger man held without bond pending probable cause hearing and ordered the competency evaluation. Lawyer has twice before been found incompetent to stand trial on charges that he attacked his parents, most recently in 2022.
Prosecutors said last week’s incident began when Robin Lawyer called 911 shortly before 9 a.m. on Friday and said her son was burning furniture and smashing windows at the home the family shared, charging documents say. Moments later, the documents say, a neighbor called and said that Todd Lawyer had been shot and Robin Lawyer injured.
Officers rushed to the scene and found Todd Lawyer dead on the ground outside his home. Robin Lawyer had injuries to her forearm and forehead. She said that she and her husband had come home that morning to find their son burning furniture in the front yard.
Later, after she was taken to a hospital, she said that Todd Lawyer, who had picked up a bat to protect himself, told Jordan he would have to move out of the home. Jordan grabbed a bat and then struck his father.
The mother said she tried to stop the beating, but the son kept hitting both her and his father, and she eventually locked herself in the house and called 911.
She was reported in stable condition on Friday; her condition on Monday was not known.
Jordan Lawyer faces life in prison if he’s convicted of the charges against him.
