Double-homicide suspect Cayer found incompetent

GREEN BAY - Brown County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Hinkfuss ruled Friday that Jacob Cayer is incompetent to stand trial on charges of killing his ex-girlfriend and her mother in Hobart in June.

Hinkfuss ordered Cayer, a 26-year-old Ashwaubenon resident, to be sent to a state mental-health institute as well as take medication as part of a treatment plan within the next 12 months for what an expert determined to be “a mental illness.”

Hinkfuss based his ruling on recommendations from forensic psychiatrist Elliot Lee, who conducted a court-ordered competency evaluation of Cayer after the double homicide. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services prepared the report with Lee’s findings.

RELATED STORY: Mental evaluation ordered for stabbing suspect

RELATED STORY: Hobart double homicide suspect in custody

Hinkfuss read portions of the six-page report in his courtroom Friday with Cayer present.

Lee wrote that he believes with “a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Jacob Cayer lacks substantial mental capacity” to have an understanding of court proceedings, among other matters pertinent to his criminal case.

“He has to become competent within 12 months, or the case can revert to something else,” said public defender Carrie LaPlant, who is representing Cayer.

“It’s not opening the floodgates,” she added. “But, if he becomes competent in less than 12 months, then the process picks up again. Then, we would come back to court and deal with the process.”

Brown County Assistant District Attorney Kari Hoffman didn’t object to Hinkfuss’ ruling, which suspends the proceedings.

The order for Cayer to be treated with medication for restoring his competency was made against the defendant’s wishes.

The court is to be apprised of a re-evaluation of Cayer’s competency every three months. The next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 11.

Cayer is charged with two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide and burglary.

He is accused of fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Sabrina Teague, 25, and beating and stabbing her mother, Heesun “Sunny” Teague, 63, to death the night of June 7 at the Teagues’ home. A third victim, Joel Kennedy, survived multiple stab wounds.

Cayer has been held in Brown County Jail on a $5 million cash bond.

LaPlant didn’t know how soon Cayer would be transferred to a state facility.

“They have to find placement for him, either at Winnebago (in Oshkosh) or Mendota (in Madison),” she said. “So, it’s going to be up to available bed space.”

Cayer’s scheduled court appearance Friday was for a competency hearing for an unrelated case in which he is charged with bail jumping and resisting arrest for an April incident, but Hinkfuss lumped both cases together to make his ruling.

tmcmaho2@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @ToddMcMahon23