Mother found incompetent

The Salt Lake City woman whose toddler was found dead in her car in January on I-70 has been found incompetent to stand trial.

Wendy Bullock, 28, was in 7th District Court in Moab on Tuesday, where Judge Lyle R. Anderson ruled that she should be transferred to a state mental hospital until she is mentally competent to appear in court on the first-degree felony murder charge she faces.

The body of her 2 1/2-year-old daughter was discovered in a car after Bullock approached a motorist at a Grand County rest area Jan. 2. Bullock was covered with self-inflicted wounds, and the motorist called for help.

Responding sheriff's officials found the girl, unresponsive, in the back of the woman's car.

Bullock had been under the eye of state child welfare officials previously and has been treated for mental-health concerns.

At Tuesday's hearing, K. Andrew Fitzgerald, Bullock's lawyer, told Anderson he believed his client should be found incompetent. Grand County Attorney Happy J. Morgan, who is prosecuting the case, said she believed Bullock was competent but wouldn't object to any ruling sending her to a state hospital.

When the judge asked Bullock if she would like to try to convince the court she was competent, she looked at her attorney "with an inquiring look on her face" and didn't respond, a court recorder's notes state.

No future hearing is scheduled. The Grand County Attorney's Office will be notified by the hospital when staff there feels she is ready to return to court.

---

E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com