TOMS RIVER – A judge has ordered a competency evaluation for a Brick Township woman accused of stabbing her 2-year-old brother after allegedly claiming she heard voices instructing her to do it.
Marlene Rodriguez, 20, appeared before Ocean County Superior Court Judge David M. Fritch for a detention hearing in connection with the November 1 stabbing on Burke Lane. She faces charges of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Police responded to the home shortly before 2:30 p.m. after receiving a 911 call. The child was conscious and alert when officers arrived but had suffered a stab wound to the chest that punctured his lung and the wall of his heart. He remains in stable condition at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, according to authorities.
Judge Fritch postponed the detention hearing until November 17 but approved a motion for a mental health evaluation to determine whether Rodriguez is competent to stand trial.
Court records say Rodriguez told investigators she heard voices urging her to stab her brother. Detectives wrote in a probable cause affidavit that she claimed the voices belonged to a family she knew and that she “visually sees what she needs to do” when she hears them.
The affidavit also said a cousin told police that Rodriguez had asked earlier that day whether she had ever “sacrificed another human being.”
Rodriguez, who spoke little during Friday’s proceedings, is also scheduled to appear before Judge Kenneth Palmer on December 15.
