PANAMA CITY — After they arrested Joseph Moody for allegedly shooting his ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Megan Pettis, police searched Moody’s home and found a suicide note.
Prosecutors declined to release the note, determining it was a confession and therefore exempt from public disclosure under state law, but March 19 was not the first time he had considered suicide, according to court testimony Friday.
Jean Marie Downing and Rusty Shepard, attorneys defending Moody against a first-degree murder charge, have sought to have Moody declared incompetent to proceed and sent to a state hospital for treatment. They got what they wanted Friday when Judge Michael Overstreet declared the defendant incompetent after listening to testimony from doctors who evaluated Moody.
Overstreet said it was “a bit of a close call,” but a doctor told him that Moody was responding to medications being administered at the Bay County Jail and additional treatment would improve the symptoms of Moody’s recurring major depression.
Moody was an off-duty member of the Panama City Fire Department on March 19 when he allegedly ambushed Pettis in the bustling parking lot of a busy 23rd Street shopping center in broad daylight. He’s accused of firing nine shots at Moody, who was struck in the head and leg as she tried to flee before crashing her car.
Moody had been on a leave of absence from the fire department in February after he was committed involuntarily to Emerald Coast Behavioral Hospital for nine days because he had been having suicidal thoughts and on-the-job anxiety attacks, according to testimony Friday.
He checked out after he got a letter from his boss saying he had been cleared to return to work, but he later told a doctor he still was having suicidal thoughts.
Chief Wayne Watts, who wrote the letter urging Moody to report to his next scheduled shift, said Friday he was not aware at the time that Moody was seeking mental health treatment and a letter like that would be sent to anyone who wasn’t reporting to work as scheduled.
Moody also had been diagnosed in 2001 or 2002 with delusional disorder, but he was not delusional when one of the doctors who testified examined Moody.
Prosecutor Bob Sombathy said every member of the jail staff who dealt with Moody described him as disrespectful, aggressive and condescending, and suggested Moody was trying to game the system.
“Is it fair to say this defendant can adjust his demeanor and attitude if he feels it’s in his self-interest?” Sombathy asked Dr. David Smith.
Smith admitted he had not seen the traits in Moody that jail staff members reported.
Overstreet asked one doctor if Moody was manipulative; the doctor didn’t answer the question directly, but he said Moody’s symptoms were genuine. Overstreet concluded he was confident treatment would improve Moody’s condition.
Pettis, whose estate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Moody, had been afraid of Moody before she was killed. She told friends and family he had threatened her and would find her.
Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty for Moody if he’s convicted, Sombathy said.
Moody tentatively had been scheduled to stand trial in September. The trial will be scheduled after he has undergone competency restoration at the hospital.