Guilty Plea Halted in St. Camillus Bomb Scare Case

A Milwaukee man was in the process of pleading guilty Wednesday to making bomb threats at a Wauwatosa assisted living center when the judge abruptly halted the proceedings and ordered a competency hearing his his case, according to court records.

Demetrius D. Lowe had originally pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to calling in bomb threats Feb. 21 at a St. Camillus nursing care wing at 10100 Blue Mound Rd.

A mental disease or defect defense admits to the crime but suggests the defendant did not know right from wrong at the time. But on April 10, a psychiatrist's report found no basis for the defense, and Lowe's attorney withdrew the plea, saying Lowe understood and agreed with the finding.

Judge Dennis Moroney ordered the case adjourned for a projected guilty plea at a return to court Wednesday morning.

But even as Lowe's attorney, a public defender, was reading from the plea questionnaire Wednesday and Lowe was verbally confirming his assent to a plea of guilty, Moroney suspended the proceedings and ordered a competency examination.

With that, Lowe was remanded back to jail, and a competency report will be heard May 29.

Competency reports may be sought by the defense or ordered by the court at any stage, often to determine whether a defendant is competent to stand trial on a not-guilty plea or, as in this case, to determine that he or she is competent to plead guilty.

It is unusual but not unheard of for a competency hearing to be ordered after a mental disease or defect defense has already been rejected and the defendant is ready to assent to the charge.

Defendant admitted, laughed off his acts

Lowe was implicated almost immediately in making numerous early morning bomb scare calles to St. Camillus, where his ex-girlfriend worked in food service. His repeated calls to several staffers referred to her and how he wanted her to get in trouble and be fired because of what he was doing.

The ex-girlfriend herself soon stepped forward and told police she knew Lowe was the one making the threats, and that he was probably doing so because he was angry that she had left him over what she called his mental instability.

The bomb scare calls caused an entire four-floor building filled with hundreds of staff members and infirm or incapacitated residents to have to be evacuated.

After his arrest, Lowe admitted to the threatening calls and acknowledged that what he had done was stupid, but still laughed and said, “This should get her fired.”

When he was told that his acts had caused fear and consternation and the evacuation of all the elderly and infirm residents of the building, an officer said, the suspect “seemed surprised.”

Lowe is charged with making bomb scares, a felony punishable by up to three years and six months in prison if convicted. According to Wisconsin Circuit Court online records, Lowe has a previous felony conviction for a 2002 burglary.