Barnes, J.
. . . Coats had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and Coats’s counsel filed a motion to determine Coats’s competency to stand trial. The trial court assigned two doctors to examine Coats. Both doctors diagnosed Coats with dementia. Noting that dementia is a progressive disease, both doctors found that Coats would not improve over time and that there was little chance of Coats being restored to competency.
. . . .
Here, the trial court expressly found that restoration to competency is improbable and unlikely, and the report supports that finding. Although the better practice in most cases is to follow the statutory commitment procedures, given Coats’s progressive dementia and the trial court’s finding that he will not be restored to competency, the purposes of the competency restoration process cannot be met by following those procedures here. It is clear that Coats’s dementia will progress, and there simply is no hope nor medical reason to believe that competency will be restored. The discussion in Curtis informs and instructs us that “the State’s interests cannot be realized if there is a finding that a defendant cannot be restored to competency.” Curtis, 948 N.E.2d at 1154. We conclude that the trial court properly denied the State’s motion to commit Coats. [Footnote omitted.]
BAKER, J., concurs.
RILEY, J., dissents with opinion:
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s decision to affirm the trial court’s denial of the State’s motion to commit Coats to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA). The statutory scheme does not allow the trial court discretion over the statutory commitment procedures. If the trial court finds that a defendant lacks the ability to understand the proceedings and assist with the preparation of his defense, “it shall delay or continue the trial and order the defendant committed” to the DMHA. Ind. Code § 35-36-3-1(b) (emphasis added). Consequently, the statute does not give the trial court discretion to decline to order commitment even where it concludes that the defendant could never be returned to competency.