A psychologist has found a man accused of trying to steal a commercial jet from Texarkana Regional Airport is competent to stand trial.
Zemarcuis Devon Scott, 18, was arrested by members of the Texarkana, Ark., Police Dept. in the early morning hours of July 4 after he was discovered in the pilot’s seat of the cockpit in an American Eagle twin engine jet. Airport security personnel called 911 after seeing Scott climb over a fence onto the airport property at about 2:30 a.m., according to a probable cause affidavit.
Formal felony charges of attempted commercial burglary and attempted theft of property were filed by Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Black. Managing Public Defender Jason Mitchell entered pleas of not guilty to the charges and asked the court to order a mental evaluation at a hearing before Miller County Circuit Judge Carlton Jones on Aug. 7.
A report detailing the findings of the evaluation at Southwest Arkansas Counseling and Mental Health Center was received last week. According to the report, Scott is fit to proceed.
Scott allegedly gave the psychologist the same account he gave to members of TAPD and the FBI after his arrest. Scott allegedly claimed he hoped to fly the plane to Chicago to see rapper Famous Dex in concert. Scott allegedly told investigators he was not worried about his lack of training or experience as a pilot as “you just use the levers and buttons,” to fly the plane.
While Scott allegedly made that statement about the ease with which an aircraft can be operated, he also allegedly told the psychologist who evaluated him that he was “drunk and high” when he left his bike in a ditch and jumped the airport fence and hoped to find “some money or a gun or something good that I could take. But I didn’t find nothing but some papers,” the evaluation report states.
Scott allegedly claimed he used synthetic marijuana in the days before he trespassed on airport property and broke into the plane. Scott is expected to appear before Jones later this month for a pretrial hearing.
Both attempted commercial burglary and attempted theft of property are punishable by a fine up to $10,000 and three to ten years in prison. Scott is being held in the Miller County jail with bail set at $25,000.
