Crime & Safety
Napa State Hospital Doctors Clear Woman to Stand Trial for Mother's Murder in 2013
Julia Franzen, 25, of Sebastopol, transferred to Sonoma County jail. She is accused of killing her mother in her home last year.
A Sebastopol woman who was committed to Napa State Hospital in May until she is deemed competent to stand trial for her mother's murder is back in the Sonoma County jail.
Doctors at Napa State Hospital say Julia Franzen, 25, is now mentally competent to stand trial.
A hearing on their report is scheduled for Thursday in Sonoma County Superior Court, her attorney Tyler Hicks said Monday. Franzen was at a brief hearing in court Monday afternoon when her competence hearing was scheduled.
She never entered a plea to killing Nancy Franzen, 59, in their Tocchini Street home on Feb. 4, 2013, and criminal proceedings were suspended pending restoration of her mental competence.
Nancy Franzen's body was found on the floor of a bedroom after Franzen showed up at a neighbor's house with a knife and blood on her hands, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said.
Franzen told her neighbor she had just killed someone then ran back to her house, Sonoma County sheriff's Lt. Steve Brown said at the time.
During Franzen's competence hearings, Dr. Christopher Wadsworth testified in May that Franzen suffers from an unspecified severe psychotic illness. He said he expects the medications will improve her condition characterized by delusions and disorganized thoughts.
If untreated, she presents a threat to herself and others, Wadsworth said.
Court records show six cases since March 2011 involving domestic violence, battery, false imprisonment, vandalism and violations of probation by Julia Franzen.
During that time she was found both mentally competent and incompetent, ordered to participate in an anger management program and allowed to have peaceful contact with her mother.
Nancy Franzen worked as a nurse at Palm Drive Hospital and at the Sutter VNA & Hospice, now known as Sutter Care at Home.
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