Further court proceedings have been suspended for 64-year-old Clarence Dean Pedersen of Washington.

Pedersen was charged with first degree murder in the July 11th death of his roommate, 70-year-old Ed Jones. At a hearing held Thursday Public Defender Peter Persaud requested that the court find probable cause to suspend all proceedings to determine if Pedersen is competent to stand trial. Persaud mentioned that in 1981 the Iowa Supreme Court found Pedersen incompetent to stand trial, in a case which shown Pedersen suffered from schizophrenia and intermittent psychosis. To the best of Persaud’s knowledge Pedersen has been taken off the antipsychotic medication he has been prescribed for the last several decades. The defendant has also asserted his true and correct name is “Band Deano.”

County Attorney John Gish stated during the hearing that at Pedersen’s initial court appearance in July he did refer to himself as Band Deano or Deano but when Magistrate Judge Larry Brock pressed him on his name, asking him if his name was Clarence Dean Pedersen, the defendant admitted to that being his legal hame, to which Pedersen said they forced him to. The state did not resist the defense’s motion, and the court ordered further proceedings be suspended and ordered a psychiatric evaluation be performed to determine Pedersen’s competency, and a status hearing on the evaluation will be held via teleconference on September 21st.