CLEVELAND — A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge is ordering doctors at Central Ohio Behavioral Health to compile a report on whether De’Lawnte Hardy, the man charged with killing Cleveland Police Officer Jamieson Ritter, can be restored to mental competency within the next two years.
The order from Judge Ashley Kilbane comes after Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 295 into law Friday, extending the competency restoration period for defendants charged with serious crimes from one year to three.
Ritter was killed in the line of duty in July 2024. Hardy was arrested and charged with aggravated murder in his death, but the path to trial has been complicated…