[media id=13 width=320 height=240]
Angela Hill, the Bonnie half of a pair of Utah desperados who terrorized Utah and Nevada over the New Year holiday will follow her boyfriend to Lakes Crossing in Reno for a psychiatric evaluation to determine if she is mentally fit to stand trial.
Elko District Judge Nancy Porter ordered Hill to the mental hospital following a presentation by her attorney Fred Lee.
Last month Porter order Robert McFarland the male half of the Utah Bonnie and Clyde crime duo to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before entering a plea to seven felony counts.
[media id=1 width=320 height=240]
Facing charges including kidnapping, car theft and robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, McFarland is on suicide watch in the Elko County Jail said his Attorney Gary Woodbury.
Wendover gym owner Rattana Keomanivong was critically wounded in the New Year’s Eve crime spree of Angela Hill and Robert MacFarland that began with the double murder of an elderly Utah couple in Mt. Pleasant and ended four days later when the two desperadoes walked out of the high desert and surrender to police at the foot of the Pequops Mountains.
The owner of Wendover’s Animal House Gym, Keomanivong was hailed as a hero who by fighting back and thwarting an attempted car jacking played a key role in ending a murderous cross country crime spree.
In addition to the seven counts facing MacFarland, Hill is also charged with Keomanivong attempted murder. It was Hill who accompanied Keomanivong in her car while McFarland followed behind in the couples’ stolen car. As soon as the odds evened with only Hill and Keomanivong in the car, Keomanivong attacked her car jacker by “biting her ear, neck and forcing her from the vehicle,”. Hill fired a shot at the woman as she drove away, according to the police report.
Keomanivong was struck in the back of the head, but she was able to drive herself to the police station and give police a description of the two before she was airlifted to Salt Lake for emergency surgery.
Thwarted in their attempt to steal Keomanivong’s vehicle the couple sped off west bound on I-80. Their stolen Saturn was found abandoned in Wells.
If Keomanivong had not fought back and won, police speculate it could have been hours if not days before the two slipped up again.
“They had already established a pattern of attacking helpless people, robbing them, stealing their vehicles and killing them before anyone knew what was happening” said one detective. “If not for Mrs. Keomanivong they could have been well on their way to Reno or San Francisco with a trail of dead bodies behind them.”
Despite the accolades, Keomanivong must now live with injuries for the rest of her life. Early hope that she would completely recover have faded. A recent brain scan suggests that some of the damage may be permanent or take a very long time to heal. With medical bills piling up she still must go for weekly check ups.
