Indiana's Accused 'Cannibal Killer' Fit To Stand Trial: Doctor

CLARK COUNTY, IN — An Indiana man, already convicted of another murder more than a decade ago, has been declared mentally competent to stand trial by a state psychiatrist, four years after authorities say he raped and murdered ex-girlfriend Tammy Jo Blanton, then ate parts of her organs. Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Jeremy Mull said a psychiatrist at the Logansport State Hospital, where 36-year-old Joseph Oberhansley, of Jeffersonville, was placed in January, wrote a letter last month declaring the man's competency had been restored during his time at the hospital, according to the News and Tribune.

The psychiatrist's findings reversed a judge's 2017 decision, with recommendation by psychiatrists, that Oberhansley wasn't mentally competent to stand trial. Defense attorneys can still contest that finding, in which case Circuit Judge Vicki Carmichael would make the final call, according to the Courier-Journal.

During a hearing last week, Oberhansley expressed a desire to get the case over with. “I'm so tired of dealing with all this stuff, I just want to be executed,” he said, according to the News and Tribune.

His next court date is Sept. 21.

This isn't the first time Oberhansley has been accused of killing a girlfriend. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting Sabrina Elder, 17, two years earlier in Utah, when he was just 18 years old. He then shot his mother in the back, wounding her, before turning the gun on himself, leaving a bullet lodged in his brain but surviving. He was reportedly high on meth at the time of the crimes.

A psychiatrist later wrote that Oberhansley had given himself a "partial lobotomy,"the Courier-Journal reported in 2014. In prison, he reportedly had the words "murderous deeds" tattooed across his back.

He was paroled from prison in Utah in 2012 and traveled to Indiana, where he met Blanton, 46, two years later. During an interview with Nancy Grace, a friend of Blanton's said he kept her from seeing friends, even adding his name to her Facebook page to monitor her activity, the Courier reported.

Days after she broke up with Oberhansley and changed her locks, Blanton was found murdered in her bathtub.

Clark County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in Oberhansley's case, only the seventh time they've done so since 1977.

Blanton was found dead on Sept. 11, 2014. An autospy revealed the cause of death was multiple blunt sharp-force traumas to her head, neck and torso. The majority of her heart and part of her lungs had been removed. Oberhansley was arrested at the scene.

Photo via ;Clark County Sheriff's Office