Woman found incompetent to stand trial in attempted murder case

Mar. 29—Court officials say a Kokomo woman accused last year of poisoning her husband's food with lorazepam was recently deemed incompetent to stand trial.

Sarha Steele, 36, was facing charges of attempted murder, a level 1 felony, and criminal recklessness, a level 6 felony, for her alleged connection to the Sept. 16 incident, per initial arrest records.

A written order filed through Howard Circuit Court earlier this month stated Steele was found to not have "comprehension sufficient to understand the nature of this criminal action against her and to make a defense thereto."

The order went on to state the case will be delayed for at least 90 days while Steele undergoes further evaluation at an unidentified facility through Indiana's Division of Mental Health.

If Steele is still not able to stand trial at the end of 90 days, court documents indicated she will then be fully committed into the Division of Mental Health.

It was Sept. 16 that officers were called to Steele's residence in the 800 block of South Bell Street in reference to the incident, according to court documents.

When officers arrived, they located a 34-year-old male slumped over in a chair in a front room, court documents noted, and investigators said he had a plastic bag with a white crystal-like substance on his lap.

Police added there appeared to be the same type of substance on a table directly in front of where he was sitting. Further testing concluded the substance was methamphetamine.

As part of their investigation, authorities interviewed several witnesses at the scene, including Steele, the alleged victim's wife.

During her initial interview with police, Steele reportedly told law enforcement officers she recently contacted the Kokomo Police Department in reference to alleged abuse by her husband.

Then, according to court documents, Steele told investigators she "took matters into her own hands."

Steele then confessed to investigators she put over a dozen of her prescribed lorazepam pills into her husband's hamburger, court documents stated, and she gave authorities the bottle of those pills that were still in her pocket.

According to the National Institutes of Health, lorazepam is a prescribed medication that can be fatal if ingested incorrectly and left untreated.

Investigators also spoke with two additional individuals who were at the scene, and they reportedly told police they observed Steele give a plate of hamburgers to her husband, though they did admit they did not see her cooking or putting the medication into the food.

Steele — who was transported by ambulance to an area hospital due to a dog bite she also sustained that day — spoke about the incident with paramedics, court documents indicated.

During one reported exchange with paramedics, Steele allegedly asked if her husband was dead.

When told he wasn't, Steele then "slumped over" and asked again a few minutes later if he was dead, according to court documents.

According to a medical report, doctors said the man overdosed on "some types of opiates and not methamphetamine," and the man would have likely died if he had not been treated as quickly as he was at the time.

Officials state he has since made a full recovery.