iirc the incest charge is a misdemeanor, this is hardly the trial of the century. This case is probably just baffling to him as to why he couldn't just convince Chris to fucking plead guilty already. But in all honesty, the more delays that occur is just more time that civilized society is protected from Chris.
It's a bit more nuanced than that. He's held under a court that handles misdemeanors, on a charge that can be either a felony or a misdemeanor. He can still have a felony charge pending if they didn't lower it after his arrest, or have one added later, he just hasn't been indicted. Ordinarily he'd be indicted already, but it could be they were holding back on the indictment for a deal.
In the Snyder case, it took them 5 months to send it to a grand jury, presumably because they were trying to get Barb and Chris to agree to a misdemeanor guilty plea, but Barb and Chris believed Rob Bell could get them off entirely, so they refused, and it wound up going to circuit court.
The way this would work normally is that the judge would eventually push for a felony charge to go to indictment, because 6 months is a long time to go without indictment. At one year, the defense would be able to say that Chris should be released because he has not been indicted, and the judge would agree. 6 months is a long time to go without indictment, and one year is basically a soft deadline in most states.
In Virginia, 5 months in jail is the normal deadline unless the defense is actively blocking a probable cause hearing, or 9 months is the person is free on bail. They still try to keep it to 5 months in general, which is why they sent it to circuit court at that time in the Snyder case. In cases where the prosecution is intent on a felony conviction, they will normally make it happen much sooner, usually within a few weeks to a few months.
What happened instead at 6 months is Chris got sent to a mental hospital. This basically prevents a hearing for it to get sent to a grand jury. The prosecution can still go independently to a grand jury for indictment, but that's usually only done for very serious crimes. If they were absolutely intent on charging him with a felony though, they would do this. That they haven't indicates that the prosecution doesn't want to convict Chris on a felony.
So Chris could very well be in a weird state where his charges read as a felony, and the J&DR court can't convict on a felony sentence, but the probable cause hearing that would send him to circuit court also can't happen, because he's in a mental hospital.
This creates the situation where Chris can be held in a mental hospital for longer than a year without indictment since his arrest, instead defaulting to the limit of 5 years where they have to decide whether to commit Chris as a free civilian rather than as an accused suspect, or let him go.
My best guess is that they will try to get Chris to plead guilty at the July hearing, with one year time served. But if Chris remains looney toons and claims he's innocent because he's a Sonichu Jesus and Harvey Birdman will prove it because that's how courts work, they might keep him longer. Heilberg *could* argue that they have to make the release or commit decision at that point, and force the prosecution to go for direct indictment or cut bait, but he probably won't as that would expose Chris to a felony conviction.
Instead Chris, if he's still nuts, will stay in the mental hospital until he either is restored to the point that he pleads guilty to a misdemeanor, or he is locked up for 5 years and the charges are dropped.
I hope they found some good drugs to give him in the hospital.
EDIT: I guess an explanation would help. In Virginia, there are two ways to go to circuit court. Either via a district-level court (General District or J&DR), or directly to Circuit Court. Either way, a grand jury is presented with evidence for probable cause, and the grand jury can issue the indictment.
The normal path is for the probable cause to be contested at the district level (and this is encouraged to happen quickly in J&DR court). A hearing is held about whether there is probable cause that the defendant committed a felony, and if probable cause is found, then the results are sent to the grand jury, which can refuse to indict but normally it is a rubber stamp. Alternatively, the defense can decide to not challenge the indictment, and it proceeds to circuit court.
The other path is a direct indictment where the prosecution -- *without* input from the defense -- goes directly to the grand jury and gives them a one-sided presentation. The grand jury can then decide to indict. This is less rubber-stampish, but they still usually go along with the indictment. However, since the defense has not had a chance to rebut, they can demand a probable cause hearing in circuit court to challenge the indictment. Since circuit court litigation has a higher cost and is harder to schedule, prosecutors normally don't go this route unless forced to, or in cases where they want to secure a conviction as quickly as possible for particularly heinous crimes. Direct indictments for wobblers are almost unheard of.
If Chris continues to be found incompetent, he can't assist in his defense in a probable cause hearing, so after a year the prosecution can be presented with the choice to drop the charges or go directly to the grand jury. This would be a pain in the ass, but if they want to be certain to keep Chris contained, they will do it.
If Chris is found competent, they can either do a plea deal to give him time served, or they can proceed with a probable cause hearing to indict him on a felony.
If Chris is found to still be incompetent, but they don't want to go to the trouble of a direct indictment, and they are forced to drop charges, they can still push to find Chris incapacitated and thus eligible for civil commitment. Alternatively, Heilberg can decide not to force the issue and Chris can just stay in the hospital longer on a non-indicted felony charge, unless the judge disagrees and demands the charges be dropped.
