Is Natomas library killing suspect fit for trial? Here’s when that will be determined
A February hearing will determine whether the suspect in the 2018 execution-style killing of a Natomas librarian is mentally able to stand trial for murder.
Ronald Seay is accused of ambushing library supervisor Amber Clark the night of Dec. 11, 2018, as she sat in her car in the parking lot of North Natomas Branch Library, shooting her dead before fleeing the scene. He was arrested the next day.
Seay, 56, faces a count of first-degree murder and an allegation of lying in wait in the slaying. He remains in Sacramento County custody.
Sacramento County District Attorney’s prosecutors said they will not seek the death penalty. But criminal proceedings against Seay have been halted since September, as doctors determined whether the man from Sacramento by way of St. Louis is mentally sound.
The answer Thursday was no as Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman ordered the criminal case remain suspended and set a Feb. 25 date for Seay’s competency hearing.
It’s not yet clear whether the hearing will be before a jury or before only a Superior Court judge, said his defense counsel, Sacramento County Supervising Public Defender Norm Dawson.
As he had throughout the case, Dawson said Seay has “substantial mental issues.” It will be up to a jury or judge to determine whether Seay is capable of assisting Dawson in his own defense.
Seay had been arrested multiple times for causing disturbances in libraries and was barred from at least two branches in the St. Louis area where he lived before moving to Sacramento just months before Clark’s fatal shooting.
Seay was later barred from Sacramento Public Library branches for aggressive and disruptive behavior before Clark, 41, was killed.
Clark’s husband, Kelly Clark, and numerous Sacramento and state library staffers sat in the gallery. Some wore black T-shirts with the hashtag #JusticeforAmberClark that called for an end to gun violence as Seay walked into the courtroom’s jail cell, his booming voice and disjointed dialogue an echo of his September hearing.
“My support people are here to ask a question,” Seay said, looking about the gallery from the holding cell, a wide adhesive bandage covering a cut above one eye and a Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy posted at his back. As in September, Seay made an apparent reference to Clark: “The woman came behind me and put her hand in her purse,” he said, before Bowman set the February date.
Clark’s death and the Dec. 10 knife attacks that wounded three people at an Auburn library branch on the eve of the anniversary of the deadly Natomas shooting have renewed concerns over the safety of the area’s public libraries.
As Seay faced a judge Thursday in Sacramento, Opada Joseph Opada, accused of two counts of attempted murder and weapons allegations connected to the Auburn attacks, was formally arraigned on felony charges in a Roseville courtroom before Placer Superior Court Judge Eugene S. Gini Jr., court records showed.
A witness to the attack said Opada without warning wrapped his arms around a library patron and stabbed the man multiple times. Opada allegedly stabbed a second patron in the head and slashed a third who tried to prevent him from fleeing.
Opada, 33, remains held without bail in Placer County Jail. He returns to court Jan. 30.
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 1:56 PM.
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