Categories: U.S.

Purdue University dormitory stabbing suspect deemed competent for murder trial

close Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for September 13

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.

A man charged with murder in the stabbing death of his Purdue University dormitory roommate has been found competent to stand trial, court records show.

Doctors at Logansport State Hospital found Ji Min Sha competent for trial after months of treatment, a Tuesday court filing shows.

Sha “has attained the ability to understand the proceedings and assist in the preparation of his defense,” hospital Superintendent Bethany Schoenradt wrote in a letter to Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Sean Persin.

The judge in April found Sha unfit for trial in the death of 20-year-old Varun Manish Chheda of Indianapolis in October 2022. Persin at that time found that Sha had reported hallucinations and experienced chronic psychosis and delusional thoughts while in jail.

Persin directed the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office to take Sha to the county jail.

IOWA POLICE HUNT STABBING SUSPECT AFTER ‘LARGE FIGHT’ NEAR CAMPUS

A status conference in the case has been scheduled for Sept. 29.

A telephone message seeking comment was left for Sha’s lead attorney in the case.

Sha, a cybersecurity major from Seoul, South Korea, faces one count of murder in the October 2022 slaying of Varun Manish Chhedad, 20, of Indianapolis. The two lived in McCutcheon Hall on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, about 65 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

A man accused of killing his Purdue University dormitory roommate has been deemed fit to stand trial after his hospital stay.  (Fox News)

Prosecutors allege that Sha stabbed Chheda, a data science major, several times in the head and neck with a folding knife that officers found on the floor near the chair where Chheda’s body was discovered.

Court records show Sha has told police he believes “he is extensively involved in international espionage and is a former CIA operative.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Purdue Police Chief Lesley Wiete has said Sha called police early on Oct. 5, 2022, and told them his roommate was dead in their dorm room. Officers who arrested Sha found him wearing clothes with blood on them, prosecutors have said. An autopsy found that Chheda had died of “multiple sharp-force traumatic injuries.”

Share

Recent Posts

Violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua terrorizing Americans in at least 19 states

close Video Tren de Aragua suspects arrested in Bronx, New York Fox News correspondent CB…

4 hours ago

Scott Peterson arrest months after Laci disappeared Christmas Eve may have been strategic: former homicide cop

close Video Murder suspect Brad Simpson appears in court Brad Simpson appeared in a San…

4 hours ago

Fall of Assad, rise of Trump: Why 2024 was a very bad year for Iran

The fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was the crescendo of a remarkably bad year for…

4 hours ago

Six household appliances that have taken heat from Biden’s crackdown on regulations

The Biden administration has made tightening efficiency standards for household appliances a target as he's…

4 hours ago

Trump names several new White House picks to work on AI, crypto and more: ‘America First Patriots’

President-elect Donald Trump unleashed a slew of nominations on Sunday night, naming several new people…

11 hours ago

Trump nominates Callista Gingrich as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, announces other picks

President-elect Trump on Sunday named Callista Gingrich, wife to former Speaker of the House Newt…

11 hours ago