BUTLER TWP. — A local judge has issued a ruling on where Stephen Marlow, the man accused of killing four people in Butler Twp. in August 2022, will remain confined for the time being.
Judge Dennis Adkins ruled this week that Marlow, 41, will remain confined to Summit Behavioral Healthcare for now.
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Police and the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office believe Marlow is responsible for gunning down four people in a Butler Twp. neighborhood in August 2022. Marlow has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the killings of Sarah Anderson, her 15-year-old daughter Kayla, as well as Clyde and Eva Knox. Marlow was apprehended in Kansas a day after the killings.
Marlow was sent to the facility after being found incompetent but restorable in November. In May, a doctor stated she believed Marlow was now competent to stand trial and recommended he be returned to jail or the community “at the Court’s discretion.”
“He’s not yet been declared competent to stand trial,” defense attorney Dennis Lieberman told News Center 7 earlier this month. “It’s simply an opinion.”
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The prosecutor in the case believes the treatment for Marlow has been enough to send him back to Montgomery County for trial.
But Lieberman said Marlow’s diagnosis, schizophrenia, should keep him at Summit and notes the psychiatrist hired to evaluate his client is considering changing the diagnosis to delusional disorder.
With this week’s ruling, Marlow will now remain at Summit Behavior Healthcare as he awaits his next hearing. News Center 7 is working to learn when that hearing will be.