NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — The woman accused of murder in the disappearance and presumed death of Nassau County mother Joleen Cummings in 2018 had a mental competency hearing in court Monday morning.
The hearing was held virtually via the Nassau County Court.
Cummings disappeared Mother's Day weekend in 2018. She and Kessler were coworkers at a salon in Yulee.
Kessler's mental competency has been a matter of much debate in the courts, with a judge finding her incompetent to stand trial in July 2019, then finding her competent to stand trial by doctors in March 2020 after being committed to Florida State Hospital for treatment.
Recent court filings reveal Kessler has been on a hunger strike, weighing in at 74 pounds a week ago. According to a Nassau County Sheriff's Office, Kessler weighed 196 pounds when she first entered the jail.
Toward the start of Monday's hearing, Kessler said "f*** you" to the court, left the room and refused to come back to her screen for the virtual hearing.
According to court filings, force-feeding is required to keep Kessler alive during the hunger strike. The captain who works in the jail said Kessler was binge eating over the weekend.
On different occasions, Kessler has refused to eat because she thought jail staff were trying to poison her or because she claimed she was going on religious fasts, the jail captain said.
Psychologist Dr. Louis Legum also testified for the public defender's office. He has evaluated Kessler on different occasions and said she is not competent to stand trial because she diagnosed her as suffering from delusional disorder.
Legum was asked whether Kessler can conform her behavior to hide mental illness. He responded that he does not think Kessler writing her last name on the jail wall in feces is normal behavior.
A Nassau County sergeant said Kessler was sitting in her observation cell completely undressed, smearing feces in the window throughout the entire hearing.
One of the doctors who said Kessler was competent to stand trial in March also testified, Dr. Graham Danzer from Florida State Hospital.