Sylvia Marie Majewska was deemed unfit to stand trial, at least for now, for allegedly murdering her 29-year-old son, Daryne Gailey, and 7-month-old granddaughter, Charley Lillian Hendrick, in Oxford last November.
That was the outcome of the 65-year-old Addison Township resident’s competency hearing held Feb. 12 before Judge Lisa Asadoorian in Rochester Hills 52-3 District Court.
‘The Center for Forensic Psychiatry found Ms. Majewska not competent to stand trial, which means that they agreed that she is not able to assist me in representing her and does not understand . . . the seriousness of the circumstances that she’s facing,? said defense attorney William Mitchell III.
The court ordered Majewska back to the 210-bed psychiatric facility in Saline for ‘further treatment,? according to Mitchell.
‘The case has been adjourned for two or three months to see if there’s any progress, at which point we’ll come back and see where this goes,? he explained.
A second competency hearing will take place in mid-May.
‘They have up to 15 months to get her, if you will, competent to stand trial before issues relating to a dismissal start to come into effect,? Mitchell noted.
Majewska is charged with the first-degree murders of Gailey, who was developmentally disabled, and Hendrick.
Both were found dead Nov. 23 in Gailey’s home on Kintyre. Blunt force trauma to the head resulted in Hendrick’s demise, while Gailey’s throat was slashed, according to the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Gailey was a 2003 Oxford High School graduate and a full-time clerk at the Kroger grocery store in Lake Orion, where he was well-known and well-liked by many.
Majewska was the only one found alive when Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies entered the Kintyre home.
She was found sitting on the couch in the living room with a boxcutter beside her. Her left arm and wrist had sustained what are believed to be self-inflicted cuts and she was bleeding into a bucket filled with water. She was conscious and able to talk, but, according to authorities, she wasn’t speaking coherently.
While Majewska was lodged in the Oakland County Jail, she was under suicide watch.
At Majewska’s pre-exam conference held in December, Asadoorian ordered her, at Mitchell’s request, to be evaluated at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry on issues of competency and criminal responsibility.
Competency has to do with Majewska’s ability to know and understand the nature of the charges against her and assist her attorney in her defense.
Criminal responsibility concerns whether she was able to know and appreciate her actions and comport them with the requirements of the law.
During a Dec. 8 press conference, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said investigators searched Majewska’s Addison home and recovered multiple computer documents and handwritten notes that show ‘a premeditation and a plan that things were all going to come to an end shortly.?
‘I don’t want to get into exact verbiage, but it was pretty clear from the documents, the notes and other things that ultimately will come out, that there was a plan and the plan had a conclusion that wasn’t good,? the sheriff said. ‘I think it’s pretty clear the ominous nature of where this was headed.?
‘For whatever reason, she came to the conclusion that (her) son and (his) child would be better off if they weren’t alive,? Bouchard said.