Trial postponed in 2014 stabbing

This week was planned to hold the trial of a man accused of stabbing to death a young Clovis mother in 2014 at Goodwin Lake Walking Trails Park.

Instead, Matthew Jennings will remain under evaluation in Las Vegas, New Mexico, as the state Department of Corrections continues to determine if he is competent to stand trial for the death of 23-year-old Ariel Ulibarri.

The trial has been rescheduled to December, District Attorney Andrea Reeb said.

Reeb noted that Jennings has been in Las Vegas for more than three months, but said the process is allowed to take place for as long as nine months.

“At this point, the defendant is still being treated for competency,” Reeb said. “We’ve received a 90-day report that says they’re progressing. We should receive a final report in the next 90 days.”

Attempts to contact Jennings’ attorney, Stephen McIlwain, were unsuccessful.

Reeb said Jennings was uncooperative with the investigation early, but it didn’t seriously hamper the investigation. Reeb didn’t elaborate on how Jennings was uncooperative, but said it can range from simply refusing to answer questions to acting psychotically.

“Tentatively,” Reeb said, “we have (plans for a December trial). I don’t see any reason those dates wouldn’t go unless he was found not competent. In that case, we’d take a different route.”

If a defendant is found not competent to stand trial, the court case is replaced by a hearing with a judge. If the prosecution provides clear and convincing evidence the accused person committed the crime, the judge remands the person to the Department of Corrections’ mental health center. Every two years following, there is a review on competency. Should the person be found competent, a trial is scheduled.

Reeb said that scenario happened following a 2004 homicide case against Dwight Wagner. He was sentenced in 2007 to life in the custody of the Department of Corrections’ mental health facility, but was later found competent in a review hearing. Reeb said Wagner ended up pleading to a murder charge.

While the initial action is less taxing than a multiple-day trial involving jury selection, attorneys must remain ready to go.

“You have to retain all of the evidence,” Reeb said. “Witnesses die, move, forget their testimony. An older case is always more difficult to try.”

Given the motions required in the case, Reeb said the process is moving at normal speed.

“Defense counsel has been very quick to agree to get him up to Vegas, and we’ve moved him along fast,” Reeb said. “A lot of it was done on paperwork.”

Reeb realizes there is often a public disconnect between the amount of time a crime happens and when that case is prosecuted.

“I totally understand (a need for closure),” Reeb said, “but a homicide normally takes two years to get to trial. Considering all that has been happening, if we get to December, I would think this has moved as fast as any homicide case.”

Ulibarri was walking at Goodwin Lake walking trails with her 6-year-old son Diego when she was attacked early on a Sunday morning. The child was not injured.

Police said they tied Jennings to the crime “based upon a unique male DNA profile match identified from the state crime lab from the murder weapon located at the scene.”

Family members and Jennings said the victim did not know her alleged attacker.