Escapee Anthony Garver will be sent to federal facility for evaluation

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A man who escaped from a psychiatric hospital in western Washington will be sent to a federal mental facility for a competency evaluation.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Shea on Thursday ordered that 28-year-old Anthony Garver be sent to a federal Bureau of Prisons facility to determine if he can understand the charges against him. The judge did not specify which facility.

Garver, also known as Anthony Burke, escaped April 6 from Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Washington, where he was being held after he was accused of torturing a 20-year-old woman to death in 2013. He was captured April 8 across the state in a rural part of Spokane County.

Garver was ruled not competent to help with his own defense in the killing of the Snohomish County woman.