Judge: Woman now fit for trial

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Tuesday, July 20, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

A woman accused of beating her children to death with a baseball bat last year is now competent to stand trial and moving her from a mental hospital to the Clark County Detention Center shouldn't affect her mental status, jail officials assured her lawyer and prosecutors Monday.

Jail officials said they would be able to ensure that Sylvia Ewing's psychiatric treatment continues.

In October 2003, Ewing, 39, had been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial and was sent to Lake's Crossing, the state mental hospital in Sparks, by District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Ewing is to be back in court Aug. 5 to resume the legal process leading up to trial. At that time she is expected to be transferred from the mental hospital to the jail.

Ewing is charged with two counts of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the deaths of her children, Phillip, 8, and Julie, 4, in their apartment on Las Vegas Boulevard North across from Nellis Air Force Base. The charges had been on hold.

According to police, on Sept. 23 Ewing took her children to a Wal-Mart, bought a baseball bat, took them home and allegedly beat them to death with the bat. Police said Ewing then stepped in front of a tractor-trailer in an apparent suicide attempt.