A Napa man accused of killing a stranger and dumping his body beneath a downtown bridge this summer has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, shifting his case from the criminal courts to California’s mental health system.
Ramiro Ochoa Mendoza, 36, was ordered earlier this month into the custody of the Department of State Hospitals after two court-appointed doctors concluded he was unable to understand court proceedings or assist in his own defense.
Ochoa Mendoza had faced a first-degree murder charge in the June killing of Noel Batres, 47, whose body was found under Napa’s Third Street bridge near the river…