The prosecution of a Burlington man accused of killing his wife with a meat cleaver is moving forward, now that he is no longer contesting whether he is competent to stand trial.
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, said late Friday that Aita Gurung has stipulated to his competency.
The move took place after a court-appointed psychiatrist deemed Gurung competent and his attorney stipulated to it during a video hearing Friday.
The action allows the case to proceed in court, though Gurung can still assert that he is not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the offense.
Gurung is charged with using a meat cleaver to kill his wife, Yogeswari Khadka, and seriously injure his mother-in-law, Thulsa Rimal, at their home in the Old North End of Burlington on Oct. 12, 2017.
“This is a major step forward in seeking justice for Yogeswari Khadka and Tulasa Rimal,” Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan said in a statement about Gurung’s competency. “We are pleased that the criminal case can now proceed.”
The case has been working its way in and out of the legal system for more than three years.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George dismissed the charges against Gurung last year, saying she would not be able to rebut an insanity defense based on expert evaluations that had already been conducted.
Those evaluations included one done for her office while it was still prosecuting the case; it deemed Gurung insane at the time of the offense.
After Gov. Phil Scott urged a review of that case, plus two unrelated ones that George had dropped for similar reasons, Donovan refiled the charges against Gurung.
George, in an email late Friday afternoon, stated that the news about Gurung’s competency is not surprising.
“My dismissal was based on his insanity defense, not his competency,” George wrote. “They are completely different.”
She said Gurung had been deemed not competent after the attorney general’s office refiled the case and argued that he be taken out of a hospital and placed in jail.
“Now that he has been back in the hospital and receiving adequate mental health care, it is not surprising that he would be found competent again,” George wrote.
Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio, whose office is representing Gurung, said Friday afternoon that competency does not preclude an insanity defense. It can still be argued, Valerio said, that Gurung was insane at the time of the offense.
“Competency means that currently his mental state is such that he understands the charges against him and he can aid in his defense,” Valerio said. “It basically puts it so you can have proceedings in the criminal court.”
Gurung faces charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. He is being housed at the state psychiatric facility in Berlin.
