A competency hearing will determine how to proceed in a murder case against a man accused of committing a deadly assault while jailed in Allen County.

Robert Lee Tomes, 36, of Scottsville, is under indictment in Allen Circuit Court on a charge of murder.

Tomes is accused of causing the death of Levi Parrish, 40, of Scottsville, while the two were awaiting to take part in Allen County court proceedings on Jan. 17, 2024, over videoconferencing.

Tomes, who was indicted in March 2024, has pleaded not guilty.

Allen Circuit Judge Mark Thurmond ordered Tomes last year to undergo a psychiatric evaluation that would help resolve questions surrounding Tomes’ competency to assist in his own defense and understand the nature of the court proceedings against him.

A competency hearing is currently scheduled to take place Monday, at which the court is likely to hear testimony from the person who evaluated Tomes at Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center.

A finding of competency by the court would allow the criminal case to proceed.

In an instance in which a defendant is found incompetent, the court-appointed evaluator has to make another finding concerning whether the defendant’s competence is likely to be restored after further treatment in a psychiatric facility.

Tomes and Parrish were booked into Allen County Detention Center two days apart – Tomes first on Jan. 14, 2024, on charges of first-degree criminal trespassing and giving an officer false identifying information, and Parrish on Jan. 16, 2024, on suspicion of driving under the influence.

While being escorted to his cell, Tomes is alleged to have punched a deputy jailer, leading to him receiving a charge of third-degree assault.

The two men were part of a group of inmates brought to the jail’s commissary room on the morning of Jan. 17, 2024, to appear in court over Zoom.

According to an arrest citation, Parrish was pushed into the commissary room while seated in an office chair, and Tomes is seen in surveillance video footage standing up, walking over to Parrish and striking him multiple times in the face.

“While there is no audio to the video, it does not appear that either inmate spoke during the incident,” Kentucky State Police Detective Graham Rutherford wrote in Tomes’ arrest citation. “Tomes was observed smiling and looking around right before the assault occurred. Inmate Tomes refused to give a statement to KSP regarding this incident.”

The incident was described in the arrest citation as a “seemingly unprovoked” attack.

Parrish was taken to an area hospital for treatment of facial injuries, which were so extensive as to prevent him from giving a statement to law enforcement, according to court records.

Parrish died Jan. 26, 2024, at the hospital.

The indictment against Tomes described Parrish’s death as due to blunt force trauma sustained in an assault, “including an accumulation of blood that formed between the skull and his scalp, injury to his brain caused by external force and a nasal bone fracture.”