A Canterbury man accused of fatally stabbing his mother is scheduled to appear in court next month for a hearing to determine his mental competency to stand trial.
Phillip Nash, 21, is being held without bail on a charge of second-degree murder stemming from the homicide of his mother, Frances Nash, 51, of Chichester, whose body was recovered by investigators from a swamp in May.
Defense attorney Emma Sisti filed a motion under seal this summer asking a Merrimack County Superior Court judge to order a mental health evaluation for Nash. Associate Attorney General Jeff Strelzin, who is prosecuting Nash, responded in a public motion soon after noting that the attorney general’s office is not taking a position on the request to determine competency.
Attorneys will typically request an evaluation by a state forensic examiner or psychologist when there is concern about a defendant’s ability to understand the criminal justice process and his constitutional right to plead or go to trial, either due to a new or persistent mental illness.
The specific reasons for Sisti’s request are not part of the public court file. However, court records available in criminal cases previously filed against Nash show evidence of a history of substance abuse and mental health issues.
In recent years, Nash had several run-ins with police that resulted in a growing arrest and criminal record.
Nash was arrested in January 2017 and charged with domestic violence after police allege he placed Frances Nash in a chokehold inside her vehicle before pushing her out of the car and to the ground. The assault continued inside his mother’s Boscawen apartment, where Nash wrestled her to the ground to prevent her from calling the police.
A judge agreed to drop the case against Nash if he remained on good behavior and underwent a mental health evaluation. But nine days later, he was arrested and charged with trespassing at a school in Manchester and resisting arrest. He never received the mental health evaluation.
The attorney general’s office filed the murder charge against Nash in late June – a month after his mother’s body and her abandoned 2011 Mercury Mariner were found in Canterbury. Nash faces two counts of felony theft by unauthorized taking for allegedly stealing the SUV and a 2000 Ford F-350 pickup from his employer to help facilitate his escape to Virginia after his mother’s death.
Authorities in Virginia ultimately picked him up and charged him with being a fugitive from justice. He waived his extradition to New Hampshire in the weeks thereafter.
Prosecutors have released few details about the murder, although more may be known in the weeks ahead. The case is expected to go before a grand jury for possible indictment by the end of September. Strelzin filed a motion earlier this month asking for more time to indict Nash as the deadline to do so was Saturday.
The competency hearing is scheduled for Oct. 11 at 10 a.m. in Concord.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)