NORMAN — A delusional man accused of a beheading in 1996 has been recommitted to the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for further treatment.
Cameron Lee Smith, 61, was released last May from a state mental hospital. He has been diagnosed as having schizophrenia and an antisocial personality disorder.
He is one of five murder suspects discharged over the last two years by the state’s mental health agency. They had been committed after being found to be mentally incompetent in their criminal cases.
All five were recharged.
Smith’s release came after he was “deemed by medical staff to no longer be an ‘immediate threat’ to the community,” prosecutors complained in a news release.
“Our office has refiled a charge of Murder in the First Degree seeing as there is no statute of limitations for murder and there is a concern for public safety,” prosecutors said last year.
Cleveland County Special Judge Nathaniel Hales dismissed the charge Jan. 11 after prosecutors reported Smith was incapable of achieving competency.