FAYETTEVILLE -- An Oklahoma man charged with fleeing police and endangering his child in June is competent to stand trial, according to doctors at the Arkansas State Hospital.
Alan Lewis Crawford, 28, is charged in Washington County Circuit Court with felony fleeing and misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. Crawford pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Legal Lingo
Mental competence
A term applied to a person’s mental ability and choosing right from wrong and having the ability to express themselves.
Source: thelawdictionary.org
Crawford of Muldrow, Okla., is also known as Omar Usman Khalid. He was at the Washington County Detention Center on Friday.
A court-ordered mental exam found Crawford didn't display signs of a mental disease or defect. He was diagnosed with a personality disorder with mixed paranoid, antisocial and borderline features, according to doctors.
Doctors said at the time of the alleged offenses, Crawford possessed the ability to appreciate the criminality of his behavior and possessed the capacity to conform his behavior to the requirements of the law. He also has the capacity to understand and assist in his defense.
The fleeing charge is related to Alan Crawford and his wife, Daphne, evading police who were trying to arrest them near Dickson Street in Fayetteville the night of June 17. Prosecutors say Alan Crawford drove a car over curbs, down a narrow one-way street and through a parking lot at a high rate of speed, putting a number of pedestrians at risk.
The Crawfords were arrested the following morning at the Value Place motel on North College Avenue.
The endangering charge is related to the clonazepam tablets and a gun being within reach of the Crawfords' young child in the motel room, the document says.
The controlled substances include a "usable amount of THC wax" and three clonazepam tablets, according to the charging document. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana, and clonazepam is an anti-anxiety medicine.
Crawford was arrested by Fayetteville police and the FBI on a preliminary charge of simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms. Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett did not file charges related to the weapons found in the motel room.
Officers found three AR-15 assault rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, six handguns and roughly 2,000 rounds of ammunition, including 721 rounds for the assault rifles, according to police reports.
Durrett said the guns appear to be legal. To support a guns and drugs possession charge, there had to have been a felony amount of drugs or evidence Alan Crawford was selling drugs, and neither was the case, Durrett said.
Alan Crawford's bond was set Thursday at $2,500.
Daphne Crawford, 29, was indicted by a federal grand jury and is charged with making threats of violence against someone using the Internet. She and her husband got into a verbal altercation with a waitress at a Prairie Grove diner, according to the indictment. A customer posted a comment on Facebook about the incident.
Daphne Crawford responded online and said her husband would shoot the customer and his or her family, according to court documents. Crawford sent the person a photo of her husband dressed in Middle Eastern attire holding an assault rifle. Both Crawfords say they are Muslim converts.
Daphne Crawford, also known as Daphne Ridenour and Umm Ammara Khalid, is also being held at the Washington County Detention Center.
NW News on 10/22/2016