Student mentally incapable
for trial
AUSTIN, Texas » A former University of Hawaii student accused of murdering a University of Texas piano professor with a meat cleaver is not competent to stand trial, a judge ruled yesterday.
District Judge Bob Perkins ordered Jackson Fan Chun Ngai, 23, sent to a state hospital for up to 120 days for treatment before he is re-evaluated, said Ngai's attorney, Jim Erickson.
Ngai, a graduate student at Texas, is charged with using the cleaver to kill Danielle Martin, who was disabled, in her home and then leaving a note on her body saying she had a computer chip in her brain.
According to homicide investigators, Ngai had helped the acclaimed piano professor, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, with grocery shopping, cooking and other chores for several months. He had enrolled in UT graduate school last fall.
According to a psychiatric evaluation performed in May, Ngai reported "delusional thoughts about somebody trying to control his mind," drug him and plant a computer chip in his brain.
Erickson said Ngai will not enter a plea until he is determined able to assist in his own defense.
Ngai, who played everything from classical to romantic to contemporary music and often practiced several hours a day, received several scholarships while at UH, including one from the Hawaii chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
When Ngai was arrested in May, Peter Coraggio, a UH professor emeritus who auditioned Ngai his freshman year to join the Bachelor of Music program, said his student "liked all the things that were fast and loud, but he could also do soft, sensitive stuff very well."
"He was a very soft-spoken guy and a friend to everybody," Coraggio said. "He worked hard and was a good student. Everybody here is totally surprised."