SAN DIEGO — Richard Tuite, the schizophrenic drifter accused of stabbing Stephanie Crowe to death in her bed, is mentally competent to stand trial for murder, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Stephanie Crowe

"He is cognitive of what is happening," Superior Court Judge Frederic Link said at the close of two days of conflicting testimony from mental health experts concerning the 34-year-old's current psychiatric condition. Under state law, Tuite must be stable enough to understand the court proceedings and assist his attorneys in preparing a defense before the case can proceed.

Link rejected defense calls to declare Tuite incompetent and send him temporarily to a state mental hospital for adjustments to his regimen of antipsychotic medications. The judge said Tuite's insistence that he does not understand any part of his case indicates not obliviousness to the fact "that there are people trying to put him in jail for the rest of his life," but a true grasp of it.

"He is not divorced from reality. He is just uncomfortable with it. That's natural. I think anybody in Mr. Tuite's seat would be uncomfortable," said the judge. Tuite, who throughout much of the hearing stared at a wall calendar instead of the witness stand, looked impassively at his hands as the judge announced his decision.

The faces of Richard Tuite: In his mugshot, in a court hearing earlier this year, and Wednesday.

His ruling clears the way for Tuite's trial to go forward as scheduled Feb. 4. He is accused of sneaking into the Crowe family's rural home Jan. 20, 1998, and killing 12-year-old Stephanie, a popular seventh grader, while her parents, siblings and grandmother slept nearby.

Police originally charged Stephanie's brother, Michael, and two friends with the murder, but DNA tests later revealed the victim's blood on Tuite's shirt. If convicted, Tuite faces a life sentence.

While Tuite has a well-documented history of schizophrenia stretching back to the age of 20 and even prosecutors term him a "delusional psychotic," his lawyers are not considering an insanity defense because, they say, he is actually innocent of the crime. They will try to exonerate Tuite by drawing on the evidence police amassed for their original case against Michael Crowe and his friends and by suggesting the teenagers are the real killers.

Judge Link appeared to acknowledge that this strategy required little cooperation or help from Tuite and advised him to "sit back and let his lawyers do the job they can do."

Three mental health experts, one hired by the defense, another by the prosecution and a third appointed by the court, took the stand during the hearing and detailed their jailhouse evaluations of Tuite. All described him as withdrawn and taciturn during the interviews and said he rarely offered more than a one-word answer to questions and frequently responded with a nod of his head. During each evaluation, Tuite claimed not to know why he was in jail, nor the charges he faced and replied, "I don't know," when asked what terms like "judge," "prosecutor" and "bail" meant.

Defense psychiatrist Clark Smith said he believed Tuite was so "overwhelmed" by voices in his head and paranoid fears that he was unable to comprehend his circumstances and should be declared incompetent.

But prosecution psychologist Paul Mattiuzzi called Tuite's behavior a "passive-aggressive" strategy during testimony Tuesday and court-appointed psychiatrist Ansar Haroun said Wednesday that he was convinced Tuite was faking.

"He told me he didn't know what a cat or a dog was, so clearly not all his answers were credible," said Haroun.

As officers escorted Tuite from the court Wednesday afternoon, he turned toward his sister in the gallery, waved and smiled. No members of the Crowe family were on hand for the decision.