Judge rules Las Vegas man unfit for trial in campus killing

Tuesday, June 2, 1998 | 12:01 p.m.

Just minutes after prosecutors withdrew their request Monday for a jury to determine Best's mental fitness, Knox County Circuit Judge James Stewart accepted a psychiatrist's recommendation and found Best not fit for trial.

But Dr. Robert Chapman's reports say Best, 18, of Las Vegas, probably will be mentally competent to stand trial within three months. The judge set an Aug. 26 hearing to reexamine Best's mental health. Best, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, now is in the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Best is accused of killing Andrea Racibozynski, 19, of Naperville with a brick after a fraternity party in March. Another student found her at the bottom of a stairwell in the dormitory where Best lived. Investigators say they found the brick and blood-soaked clothes in Best's dormitory room and car.

In the courtroom across the street from the brick and terra cotta buildings of Knox College, a handcuffed Best read court papers placed in front of him by his lawyers as he waited for the judge.

If further examinations by state psychiatrists find Best capable of standing trial by August, the murder trial could start by October, said State's Attorney Paul Mangieri.

Mangieri said he withdrew his demand for a jury's ruling on Best's fitness after he read a second report by Chapman and found information favorable to the prosecution's argument. He would not elaborate, and defense lawyer James Shadid won a request for the court to seal Chapman's papers.

"The state did not agree or admit that the defendant was unfit. It simply allowed the judge to make a determination," Mangieri said afterward. "We're not talking about insanity. We're talking about competency to understand what's going on now."

He also said he thought a judge's ruling would better withstand an appeal than would a jury's decision. He said he also did not want to put the victim's family through the pain of listening to details of the killing in both a fitness hearing and any later trial.