IOWA CITY, Iowa— A judge ruled Monday that the man accused of gunning down a legendary Iowa high school football coach is mentally competent to stand trial.

Mark D. Becker, 24, can appreciate the first-degree murder charges against him, understand the proceedings and assist with his defense, according to an order filed by Butler County District Judge Stephen Carroll.
Becker had been scheduled to stand trial last month in the June shooting death of Aplington-Parkersburg High coach Ed Thomas, who led the team in northeast Iowa for 34 seasons and was named the NFL’s High School Coach of the Year in 2005.
The case was put on hold pending a mental competency ruling after experts agreed Becker, who once played for Thomas, hallucinates and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, but differed on whether he was mentally fit to stand trial.
Carroll ordered a new trial date set.
Carroll said Becker’s paranoid schizophrenia is “undisputed” but that an increased dosage of an anti-psychotic medication, along with the findings of the prosecution’s psychiatrist, lead him to believe Becker can understand the trial proceedings.
“The evidence indicates that Mr. Becker has sufficient ability to recall events which will be pertinent to his defense,” Carroll wrote in the order. That includes Becker’s ability to recall the series of events on June 24, when Thomas was shot to death in the high school weight room.
“Becker was able to recall and relate those events in a ’precise, chronologic, detailed, coherent manner,”’ the judge wrote.
Carroll also agreed with the prosecution psychiatrist’s finding that Becker suffers from auditory hallucinations. The judge said that because the hallucinations do not involve the legal system, and because Becker didn’t experience hallucinations during the psychiatrist’s interview, the hallucinations likely won’t interfere with his ability to assist with his own defense.
Becker is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail.
Thomas’ slaying garnered nationwide sympathy for his small town. Four players he coached are on NFL teams, and he is widely credited with helping Parkersburg recover from a deadly tornado in May 2008 that destroyed the southern third of the town.