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OGDEN — Psychological evaluations have determined that a Holladay woman accused of stabbing her girlfriend 46 times as they drove down the freeway is competent to stand trial.
Victoria Ashley Mendoza, 22, is charged with murder in the death of 21-year-old Tawnee Maria Baird. She was found in two psychological reviews to be mentally capable to stand trial.
Second District Judge Joseph Bean has ordered that the evaluation be completed to include questions of possible diminished mental capacity that were excluded from one of the reports, according to an order filed Thursday.
Mendoza's attorneys did not contest the findings, but motioned to delay the jury trial set to begin Nov. 30 citing funding issues for expert witnesses.
A review hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 17.
Mendoza and Baird were driving on I-15 near Ogden on Oct. 18, 2014, when they got in a fight and Mendoza, who was behind the wheel, pulled a knife from her pocket and began stabbing Baird, according to court documents. Baird was stabbed more than 40 times in the neck, face and chest.
Mendoza then drove to a church parking lot, 2484 E. Ave., and called her sister to tell her what had happened.
Baird's father told KSL shortly after his daughter's death that Baird and Mendoza had met five years earlier as teenagers in a youth treatment center, and that Mendoza sometimes became jealous at Baird's playful and flirty personality. The women lived together in Holladay.
Mendoza and Baird were driving on I-15 near Ogden on Oct. 18, 2014, when they got in a fight and Mendoza, who was behind the wheel, pulled a knife from her pocket and began stabbing Baird, according to court documents. Baird was stabbed more than 40 times in the neck, face and chest.
Mendoza then drove to a church parking lot, 2484 E. Ave., and called her sister to tell her what had happened.
Baird's father told KSL shortly after his daughter's death that Baird and Mendoza had met five years earlier as teenagers in a youth treatment center, and that Mendoza sometimes became jealous at Baird's playful and flirtatious personality. The women lived together in Holladay.
