A Baton Rouge man facing a manslaughter charge in the beating death of his twin brother will undergo mental evaluations to determine if he's fit to stand trial, a judge has ruled.
Timothy Paul Pitts, 57, was arrested on Oct. 4, 2022 after his brother, Daniel Pitts, died from injuries he sustained in a Sept. 16 attack at the brothers' shared home in the 13000 block of Wallis Street in the Windsor Place neighborhood, court documents say.
It was not clear what led to the fatal beating or how Timothy Pitts is alleged to have carried it out.
Daniel Pitts clung to life for nearly two weeks before dying at Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center on Sept. 29. An autopsy report ruled his death a homicide because of blunt force injuries to the neck and head.
Police said a witness reported to investigators that Timothy Pitts called her around the time of the beating and told her Daniel "was not doing good" and that "his eyes would not open."
Timothy Pitts was booked on a count of second-degree murder, which would have carried a mandatory life sentence if he was convicted. Court records show he was formally charged Feb. 2 for manslaughter, which has a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.
District Judge Gail Horne Ray appointed two doctors to a sanity commission in the case: Baton Rouge forensic psychologist Dr. Laura Brown and Dr. Janet Johnson, a behavioral psychiatrist at Tulane University, according to the judge's order.
Public defenders representing Pitts were originally scheduled Thursday to request his $300,000 bond be reduced or eliminated, but they pivoted to asking for a sanity commission, court records show. Ray recessed the hearing on bond arguments and appointed the mental health doctors to evaluate Pitts' competence, court records show.
Ray scheduled a sanity hearing to learn the results of the evaluations for Aug. 14 in her courtroom.