Man accused of murdering Daytona Beach couple during 2022 Bike Week deemed competent to stand trial
Jean Macean competent to stand trial
The man accused of brutally murdering a Daytona Beach couple during the 2022 Bike Week festivities has been deemed competent to stand trial, a judge has ruled. It is the latest in a series of competency hearings for Jean Robert Macean, 33, who is facing two counts of first-degree murder, accused of stabbing Brenda Aultman, 55, and Terry Aultman, 48, as they were riding their bikes home from the event on March 6, 2022.
ORLANDO, Fla. - The man accused of brutally murdering a Daytona Beach couple during the 2022 Bike Week festivities has been deemed competent to stand trial, a judge has ruled.
It is the latest in a series of competency hearings for Jean Robert Macean, 33, who is facing two counts of first-degree murder, accused of stabbing Brenda Aultman, 55, and Terry Aultman, 48, as they were riding their bikes home from the event on March 6, 2022.
"I'm just absolutely relieved that the judge did decide that he is competent to stand trial because now we can get the ball rolling and get this over with," Sara Turner, Brenda's daughter. "We can get the ball rolling and get this over with so that we can attempt to start healing. It is just an open gash, an open wound that is not going to close."
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Following a hearing in January, the judge ruled that Macean was incompetent to stand trial and ordered that he be placed in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families and receive an involuntary mental health evaluation. In May, after multiple competency exams were administered to Macean, the court was presented with a formal evaluation that determined his competency was restored.
Macean had been undergoing evaluation at Florida State Hospital but was returned to the Volusia County Jail. Subsequently, Macean's attorney filed court documents suggesting incompetency based on "intellectual disability." The court then appointed an expert to evaluate Macean and conducted the hearing earlier this month on which Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn based her ruling.
The Aultmans' bodies were found on the morning after their murders. Both had been stabbed, and their throats had been slashed, according to the Daytona Beach Police Department. Their bikes were nearby.
"I have trouble even being able to make sense of any of it. It just feels like really surreal and like a living nightmare," Turner said. "It just doesn't feel real. I hate that it happened to them. I hate that it happens to anyone."
A multi-day manhunt for the alleged killer began, and he was eventually arrested days later in Orlando. Daytona Beach police previously said that Macean confessed to the murders while talking with detectives.
The judge ruled that Macean understands the charges against him and the consequences he faces. The judge also said Macean behaved appropriately during the competency hearing earlier this month.
If convicted, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. However, a trial date has not been set.
"I honestly wouldn't mind him not getting the death penalty because I think that he deserves to sit with his actions and rot," Turner added. "To put it bluntly and disgustingly, for what he did to two amazing individuals."
Macean is a Haitian immigrant who was first arrested in 2019 on drug charges which were later dropped under former State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s supervision.