Wilberger Murder Suspect to Undergo Mental Competency Hearing

Joel Patrick Courtney is currently being held at the New Mexico psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas.

Thirty-nine-year-old Joel Patrick Courtney. Photo Courtesy: FBI

(ALBUQUERQUE, NM) - A New Mexico man accused of rape in New Mexico and the murder of Brooke Wilberger in Oregon is to undergo a mental competency hearing to determine whether he is fit to stand trial.

State District Judge Kenneth Martinez has set Dec. 20th as the hearing date authorities said Monday.

39-year-old Joel Patrick Courtney was arrested in November 2004 after being accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a foreign exchange student at the University of New Mexico.

Courtney was indicted in July 2005 in Oregon on 19 counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape and sodomy in the May 24th, 2004, disappearance of BYU student Brooke Wilberger.

Courtney’s Oregon trial for kidnapping and killing Wilberger is on hold pending the outcome of his New Mexico trial on the kidnapping and rape charges.

The 19-year-old Wilberger disappeared from a Corvallis apartment complex in May of 2004 and despite a massive search, was never found.

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