Reston Girl's Accused Killer Will Have His Head Examined: Report

RESTON, VA -- A judge has appointed a pair of brain experts to examine a man accused of killing a teenage Muslim girl from Reston, despite the fact that the prosecutor said that they were "neuro-witchcraft," according to a report.

WTOP reports that Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows has appointed a neuropsychologist and neurotoxicologist to evaluate 23-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, who is accused of raping and killing Nabra Hassanen of Reston last June. Her family believes the slaying was a hate crime, but police believe that Martinez Torres, an immigrant from El Salvador, was motivated by road rage.

Hassanen was walking with a group of friends during the pre-dawn hours to Ramadan services at her mosque nearby. Police believe Martinez Torres confronted Hassanen and her friends as they were walking in the road, and eventually he caught Hassanen, hit her on the head with a baseball bat, took her to a nearby pond, raped her, killed her, and dumped her body in the water.

Defense lawyers are hoping to prove that Martinez Torres had limited mental ability. Since he is facing the death penalty, and the Supreme Court has barred execution of people with mental disabilities, his defense team is hoping such a diagnosis would spare him capital punishment.

One defense lawyer reportedly argued that his client was raised near a gold mine in El Salvador where toxins like arsenic and mercury leach into groundwater. They hope to use the neurotoxologist to show how it limited his mental capacity. However, prosecutors say that experts can't scientifically prove any connection.

The trial is scheduled to begin in January.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gotten involved in the case. "On June 19 [2017], ICE lodged a detainer on Darwin Martinez Torres, a citizen and national of El Salvador, with the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax, Virginia. ICE lodges detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges when the agency has probable cause to believe an alien is removable from the United States. Mr. Martinez Torres has no prior encounters with ICE."

The All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), located on Sugarland Road in Sterling near where the confrontation happened, describes itself as being an "Islamic center that is open and inviting to both men and women, young and old, and visitors of other faiths," according to its website. The ADAMS Center also says it is "committed to providing all of its attendees with a safe and welcoming environment to worship, learn, socialize, and serve the center and the greater community."

The ADAMS Center released a statement after Hassanen's death, saying mosque leadership was "devastated and heartbroken" over the incident.

Image via FCPD