For a second time, a Somali accused of murdering his four children in 2006 has been found competent to stand trial.

Jefferson Circuit Judge James Shake also has ruled that Said Biyad — who is accused of cutting his children’s throats after raping his wife in their Iroquois Homes apartment — is eligible for the death penalty.

Shake said in his order Monday that Biyad’s meetings with evaluators at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange show he understands the role of his defense, the judge and the jury and knows of the potential penalties in the murder case.

Defense attorneys had asked that the death penalty be excluded because Biyad had only been in the United States about two years when the murders were committed and evidence the defense might use as mitigating factors would be beyond their reach in Somalia.

But Shake said other attorneys have faced similar challenges and found “innovative means” to find information, such as working with a consulate to access school records or using the services of a “cultural expert.”

Shake’s competency ruling was in response to a defense request to reconsider the issue after psychologist Larry Curl was sanctioned for offering his opinion in testimony without having met with Biyad.

Curl, who was an employee of Central State Hospital at the time, was reprimanded by the Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology and put on two years’ probation and supervision for testifying about Biyad’s competency even though he had not personally assessed him.

Shake had ruled in June 2009 that Biyad was competent to stand trial on the murder charges as well as charges of attempted murder, rape and assault on his wife, Fatuma Amir, who survived the Oct. 6, 2006, attack.

On Monday, Shake ruled that he had discounted Curl’s testimony because of his “almost non-existent personal knowledge” of Biyad.

During his testimony, Curl acknowledged that he had not evaluated Biyad personally and couldn’t declare whether Biyad was competent, but Curl said he was relying on his observations and interviews with corrections officers and nurses as well his analysis of other experts’ evaluations.

Biyad, who is scheduled for trial in January, told police that he and his wife had been fighting and he forced her to have sex, then hit her with a blunt object, according to court records.

When Amir regained consciousness, she fled to a bedroom and braced the door shut so Biyad could not enter, prosecutors said in court records.

Biyad then went to the rooms where his children slept and cut their throats, according to a transcript of an interview he had with police. “It is not right, I did bad things,” Biyad told police, according to the transcripts.

Goshany, Khadija, Fatuma and Sidi Ali, ages 2 to 8, all died in the apartment in the 1400 block of Bicknell Avenue.

Reporter Jason Riley can be reached at (502) 584-2197.

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