Suspect in Potomac senior home homicide found incompetent to stand trial

A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge on Friday found the defendant in a Potomac senior home murder case incompetent to stand trial — for the time being.

Maurquise Emillo James is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Robert Fuller Jr., 87, who was found with a gunshot wound to the head at the Cogir Potomac Senior Living facility on Valentine’s Day.

James appeared in court Friday morning wearing green jail scrubs. He didn’t speak and looked downward as he sat at the defendant’s table.

During a hearing that lasted only a few minutes, Judge Karla N. Smith found James incompetent to stand trial because he was a danger to himself and others. She committed James to the Maryland Department of Health.

James will be reevaluated for competency during a hearing in November, Smith said.

He had been represented by a private attorney, Michael Stark, and is now represented by the public defender’s office.

Stark did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Fuller, a philanthropist and retired lawyer, practiced in Maine.

Montgomery County District Court Judge Michael O. Glynn III in March found James mentally capable of standing trial after he was medically evaluated.

James has been held in jail without bond.

In February, a prosecutor said James had planned Fuller’s “cold-blooded killing” for a month.

James is also accused of firing at a state trooper during a predawn traffic stop in Baltimore. Shell casings from those shots matched the one found in Fuller’s apartment.

At the Cogir facility, James wore a wig and a mask, disabled alarms and propped open doors to evade law enforcement, according to court documents.

He administered medication to Fuller and his girlfriend, who shared the apartment but slept in a separate bedroom.

Fuller’s girlfriend, Linda Buttrick, told investigators she found it odd that James returned to the apartment that night to ask if the prescribed medication, Oxycodone, had kicked in.

Buttrick filed a lawsuit in March against Cogir of Potomac claiming the senior home failed to act on multiple complaints made by a nurse against James shortly before the killing of Fuller. Cogir also didn’t reassign James after Buttrick accused him of killing her partner to the police.

James is also charged with first- and second-degree attempted murder for allegedly shooting at the state trooper on Feb. 24.

Later that day, he was arrested in downtown Rockville ahead of a court appearance related to a traffic violation.