Joseph Green, left, appears in court Thursday with his lawyer, Laura Breun. A judge ordered a competency evaluation for Green at Breun's request.
A judge on Thursday ordered a competency evaluation for a Madison man accused of shooting his sister to death at her home on Christmas Eve.
State Assistant Public Defender Laura Breun asked for the examination for Joseph G. Green, 57, before a preliminary hearing was scheduled to occur before Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn.
Green is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. Police said they believe Green shot his sister, Sheila M. Green, 63, multiple times Dec. 24 at her home on South Midvale Boulevard.
A criminal complaint filed last week states police watched surveillance video from the apartment building on Sawyer Terrace where Joseph Green lives and saw him arrive home in the same time frame that Green placed a call to 911, in which he told a dispatcher that his sister “needs an ambulance immediately.”
The complaint states Green placed something in a trash bin, and police who checked the bin a short time later found a handgun in a holster. The gun was loaded with the same type of ammunition as shell casings found in Sheila Green’s house, the complaint states.
Court documents state Green declined to give a statement to police.
Joseph Green will be examined for competency at the Dane County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million bail. The examination will determine whether Green is capable of understanding the legal proceedings against him and is able to assist his lawyer in his defense.
If he is found not competent at this stage, it’s likely the case would be suspended and he would be treated at a state mental health institution until he is returned to competency. Those orders typically last for a year.
Bailey-Rihn ordered the exam to be done within 30 days and set a hearing on Feb. 10 to discuss the results.
According to her obituary, which appeared in Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal, Sheila Green was a board-certified ultrasound technician and had worked at St. Mary’s Hospital for nearly 40 years. Originally from Maryland, she lived her teen and adult years in Madison, her obituary states, and was a 1974 graduate of West High School.
Joseph Green was the only one of her three living siblings who lived in Madison. A memorial service for Sheila Green is scheduled for Saturday.
Near West Side homicide, school incidents top recent notable crimes in Madison area
Fatal shooting Saturday started as drug deal, witness told police; bail set at $1 million
The shooting death of a Dodgeville man last weekend on Madison’s Near West Side began as a drug transaction that became violent when the would-be drug seller pulled out a gun to rob the buyers, then shot one of them, according to a document filed in the case and released Tuesday.
Prosecutors are expected to file formal charges Monday against Marcus T. Hamilton, 20, of Madison, who is tentatively charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the shooting death Saturday of Gunnar T. G. Holum, 18. Holum died shortly after he was shot Saturday afternoon in the 1000 block of Spruce Street.
Read the full story here. And a story on Hamilton's dad being shot to death in 2008 here. And a story on how Hamilton was recently given deferred prosecution in felony case.
Boy with BB gun shot 2 girls getting off of Madison school bus, police say
Madison police said Thursday that an additional teenage girl from Jefferson Middle School was shot by a BB gun after getting off of the bus Tuesday afternoon.
Two 13-year-old boys were arrested Wednesday morning because of the incident, one for firing the weapon out of the bus window and the other for bringing the BB gun inside of the middle school on Wednesday, Madison police said.
Woman charged after staff member battered at Orchard Ridge Elementary School
A Madison woman was charged Friday with felony battery after police said she punched and kicked a staff member at Orchard Ridge Elementary School on Wednesday morning.
Lacandis M. Walker, 32, was charged in a criminal complaint with battery to school employees and disorderly conduct for the incident about 8:40 a.m. at the school, located at 5602 Russett Road on Madison’s Southwest Side.
Woman injured by flying glass as 10-plus shots fired at South Side residence, Madison police say
A woman was injured by flying glass after as many as 10 shots were fired at the South Side residence on Tuesday night, Madison police reported.
Shortly before 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Madison police were dispatched to the 2300 block of Allied Drive on multiple reports of shots fired, Sgt. Nathan Becker said in a statement.
As officers were arriving, a tenant of a residence in the 2300 block called 911 to report that his mother was bleeding. The woman was found to have suffered injuries to her upper torso from flying glass, Becker said.
3 hospitalized, 1 in critical condition, after stolen vehicle crashes into tree, Fitchburg police say
A teen was critically injured and another teen and an adult were seriously injured when the stolen vehicle they were in crashed into a tree Saturday night, Fitchburg police reported.
The crash happened at about 9 p.m. in the 2200 block of Rosenberry Road, when the vehicle, stolen in Madison, left the road and slammed into a tree head-on, Sgt. Andrew McCarthy said in a statement.
13-year-old boy crashes stolen car, leaves 2 injured passengers in burning vehicle, police say
A 13-year-old Verona boy crashed a stolen car in the East Towne Mall parking lot early Saturday morning and then fled, leaving two injured passengers in the car, which caught on fire, Madison police said.
The passengers, both teenagers from Middleton, were able to get out safely, and they were taken to a hospital, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.
A short time later, the injured 13-year-old driver showed up at the same emergency room and tried to claim he had been injured while riding a bicycle, DeSpain said.
Man charged with hiding body of missing Sun Prairie woman in Adams County
A man was charged Thursday with hiding the body of a Sun Prairie woman whose remains were found in Adams County last month.
Robert J. Olson, 25, also is charged with providing false information on a missing person and obstructing an officer. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office has Olson’s address listed as Juneau in Dodge County.
Earlier this month, the Adams County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains as those of Annastasia Evans, 24, who had been missing since May 4.
Pardeeville man sought to have his probation agent murdered, complaint alleges
A Pardeeville man was charged Monday with soliciting murder after police said he tried to get another inmate at the Dane County Jail to kill the man’s probation agent because the agent was trying to put him into a drug treatment facility, a criminal complaint states.
Christopher W. Dolajeck, 41, was charged with solicitation of first-degree intentional homicide for offering the other inmate $1,000 last month to kill the state Department of Corrections agent after the inmate, wearing a hidden recording device provided by investigators, recorded Dolajeck explaining how he was going to get the money to pay for the murder, according to the complaint.
The case of the missing violin: Instrument worth $10,000 among several stolen from UW-Madison music students
Samantha Carter felt “utter disbelief” at what she saw on Sunday afternoon in the basement of the Humanities Building on North Park Street: The padlock on the locker in which she had stored her violin for the past four years as a music student at UW-Madison was missing.
So was her violin.
Hidden cameras found in hotel rooms of Madison high school students on field trip
Madison East High School students found hidden cameras in their hotel rooms during a school field trip to Minneapolis last weekend, a school district spokesman said Thursday.
The Madison School District has put a staff member on leave in response to the incident as a cautionary measure, district spokesman Timothy LeMonds said. He said that is standard procedure during a police investigation.
The district was notified of the incident Sunday, LeMonds said. The field trip to Minneapolis took place Dec. 6 through Sunday.
Ed Treleven | Wisconsin State Journal
Ed Treleven is the courts reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal.
