KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lawyers for accused double murderer Kylr Yust say he "suffers from a mental disease or defect" and needs treatment before he faces a jury.
Yust's attorneys filed paperwork Aug. 23 in Cass County Circuit Court that say a doctor who examined him found that he "lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense" and declared Yust "mentally unfit at this time to proceed," according to court records.
Due to that incompetence, Yust's attorneys argue that court proceedings, including his prosecution for the murders of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions, must be suspended.
According to the filing, his attorneys have asked that Yust be "committed to the custody of ... the (Missouri) Department of Mental Health for as long as the mental unfitness endures" or until his case is resolved.
Yust is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abandoning a corpse in the deaths of Runions and Kopetsky. He is scheduled to go to trial in November.
Family, friends and police spent years searching for Kopetsky after she disappeared in 2007.
Her remains eventually were found in rural Cass County near where Runions' body also was found.
A hearing in the case is set for Sept. 3.
