CINCINNATI — The man accused of throwing a 3-year-old boy into the Ohio River alive after stabbing the boy's mother to death had his competency trial continued.
It's been nearly three years since Nylo and Nyteisha Lattimore were tragically killed and Desean Brown was arrested for their murders. For the past year, Brown's attorneys have filed continuances for his trial as they work to have mental health evaluations done on him.
In August 2022, Brown's attorneys filed two motions: One requested the death penalty be dismissed in Brown's case because of the mental illness; a second motion requested to vacate Brown's trial schedule to allow the prosecution to appoint their own expert to evaluate Brown.
Brown was scheduled to appear at the Hamilton County Courthouse at noon for a serious mental illness hearing; Defense attorneys issued a subpoena Wednesday requesting a psychological health professional testify on Brown's behalf at the hearing. But the judge continued the trial until September 26th.
If Judge Meghan Shanahan rules Brown is suffering from a severe mental illness, the death penalty — which prosecutors announced they would seek against Brown in 2021 — could be dropped.
Nyteisha was stabbed to death in her home Dec. 5, 2020 according to police. Her body would not be discovered until Dec. 12, 2020 when officers found it abandoned on Pete Rose Way in downtown Cincinnati.
Brown let Nyteisha's body sit in her apartment for at least five days, prosecutors said, before using a body bag to remove it from the apartment. Prosecutors said they believe Nylo was thrown into the river alive one day after Nyteisha's murder, on Dec. 6. Nylo's empty stroller was discovered along the Ohio River, not far from where his mother's body was located, on Dec. 13.
Nylo's body has never been recovered.
In June, Cincinnati police detectives told the judge it appears Nyteisha was pregnant with Brown's child, but had a miscarriage. Detectives believe Brown killed her and Nylo out of retaliation for the miscarriage.
Over the past three years, Brown's team has filed motions to dismiss the case against him entirely based on a multitude of factors, including insufficient evidence.
The competency hearing centers on whether the death penalty applies to someone in his mental state. Defense Attorney Martin Pinales, who is not affiliated with this case, said motions like these come with challenges.
"A lot of people who are convicted of any offense, whether there's a death penalty or not, have some degree of mental illness," he said. "The question is 'Is it sufficient to get over the hurdle of the person being so severely ill that they should not receive the death penalty?'"
Pinales said timing can help or hurt arguments in a case.
"We have had cases where we said the person is not guilty by reason of insanity or that the person is not competent to stand trial because of mental health issues," he said. "I haven't had it where it to where the death penalty has already been invoked and now the person is trying to negate that."
