LITTLE ROCK — A Pulaski County circuit judge on Wednesday ordered a psychiatric evaluation for a 24-year-old Louisiana woman accused of trying to impersonate Morgan Nick, an Ozark girl whose disappearance at age 6 and the subsequent 17-year investigation captured national attention.
Judge Leon Johnson ordered the mental review for Tonya Renee Smith at the request of Public Defender Bill Simpson, as he explores a potential insanity defense. Accused of trying to buy Nick’s birthcertificate by posing as the girl, Smith is charged with felony computer fraud, but the criminal proceedings will be on hold until the question of Smith’s mental health is resolved. The delay could take at least three months.
According to her application for representation by a public defender, Smith has not worked in at least a year. Her last job was with Precision Caregivers earning $2,500 to $3,000 a month, the application states. She reported receiving $365 in food stamps over the past year. She reported owingabout $25,000 in medical bills, with her only asset being a 2006 Dodge Stratus on which she pays $425 a month.
Smith was in court Wednesday as prosecutors sought to have her bail increased. Deputy prosecutor Tonia Acker said Smith could be a flight risk. She’s under a fugitive hold at the Pulaski County jail.
The prosecutor said Smith was arrested in Missouri and she is an absconder from probation from in her native Louisiana. Smith had to be extradited to Arkansas, the prosecutor said. The extent of Smith’s criminal history is not completely clear beyond at least one felony conviction. Acker said Smith wanted Nick’s birth certificate to assume a new identity and escape her supervised release.
Authorities have attributed two other aliases to her, Tonya Renee Comesana and Tonya R. Miller, according to charging documents, which lists residences for Smith in Alexandria, La., Boyce, La., and Hollister, La. An arrest report shows an Elmer, La., address.
Acker also questioned whether Smith had been honest when she told police she did not know whoNick is. Preliminary results from a forensic examination of Smith’s laptop have found an age-progressed picture of Nick, Aker told the judge. Smith initially told investigators that she’d selected Nick’s name from a list of potential identities provided by a man she knew in Louisiana.
Smith’s original $200,000 bail was reduced to $15,000 without a hearing by a substitute judge in Pulaski County District Court, Acker said.
Smith’s lawyers opposed any change in bail. Simpson said $15,000 was appropriate for the charge, a Class D felony that carries a sixyear maximum. Any hearing would be inappropriate, Simpson said, until Smith’s mental fitness is resolved.Johnson said he would not alter the bail amount, but that prosecutors could petition for a change once the psychiatric report is complete.
Smith was arrested in Branson about six weeks ago by Arkansas State Police who reported that Smith identified herself as Nick while trying in June to purchase the girl’s birth certificate over the Internet through the VitalChek service of the state Department of Health. The purchase request triggered an investigation, because the Health Department keeps tabs onrequests for documents on people who have been reported missing.
Smith is eight months older than Nick, whose 24th birthday was last week. Missing-children alerts by law enforcement are named for Nick, who disappeared from an Alma baseball field in June 1995 and is believed to have been abducted. Last year for Nick’s birthday, Alma police arranged through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for two investigators to work on her disappearance. Police get regular tips in the case.
Her mother, Colleen Nick, has established a namesake foundation to advocate for missing children and resources to assist their families. The foundation website, www.morgannickfoundation.com, has information about the girl’s disappearance, including a photograph showing what Morgan Nick could look like at age 18 and sketch of the man suspected of having abducted the girl.
The foundation mainly relies on donations to operate, which accounted for $64,731 of its $67,010 in revenue in 2010, according to the most recent finance figures available. The charity operated at a loss that year with $93,722 in expenses, financial disclosure reports show.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/20/2012