{"id":474064,"date":"2026-10-23T02:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T02:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474064\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T02:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T02:32:14","slug":"olympic-hopeful-accused-of-murder-refuses-mental-health-exam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474064\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic hopeful accused of murder refuses mental health exam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An attempt by a defense attorney to plead incompetency in an El Paso County murder case may have backfired after the former Olympic hopeful herself refused evaluation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.com\/tag\/khayla-dawson\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"98031\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Khayla Dawson<\/a>, 27, was ordered to undergo a <a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.com\/tag\/competency-evaluation\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"19442\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">mental health evaluation<\/a> for an undisclosed condition in March after it was requested by her defense team. Yet the expert hired by the defense to conduct the evaluation told a judge Thursday that Dawson had twice refused to be examined.<\/p>\n<p>\n        Recommended Stories<br \/>\n        \u25b6\n    <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Khayla-Dawson-e1772834037382.jpg\" alt=\"Khayla Dawson, 27, was arrested for murder on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. Courtesy of El Paso County Sheriff's Office.\" class=\"wp-image-999524\"\/>Khayla Dawson, 27, was arrested for the alleged murder of Jeremy Campbell on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Courtesy of El Paso County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dawson faces a first-degree murder charge for allegedly stabbing and killing 38-year-old Jeremy Campbell. She had hired him as an Uber driver on a night in October 2025 to go for a \u201cjoy ride,\u201d she told investigators following her arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Campbell\u2019s body was found dumped in a field north of Colorado Springs, with his car nearby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dawson\u2019s case has been delayed several times due to the ongoing evaluations, as well as her refusal to show up to court hearings. A trial was set in April, but then vacated after defense attorney Nick Rogers brought up possible competency issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During an evidence hearing last year, the courtroom was packed with a crowd of people who donned bright green shirts in memory of Campbell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El Paso County district court Judge Eric Bentley said he is getting more and more frustrated with the delays and asked for a resolution on Dawson\u2019s competency next week. He set aside a time Oct. 29 for the defense\u2019s expert to make her findings based on information she\u2019s gathered from the investigation and another competency report that was filed in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Redfield indicated that Dawson herself said in a prior hearing that she was ready to proceed and is competent, though Redfield still asked Bentley to hold off on a ruling until the expert files her report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempt by a defense attorney to plead incompetency in an El Paso County murder case may have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[160471,138,140,139,17964,636],"class_list":["post-474064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-competency-evaluation","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-khayla-dawson","tag-murder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}