A mental competency evaluation was ordered Thursday for an ex-con charged with attempted murder for an apparently random attack on a 63-year-old woman in a Burbank alley.
Criminal proceedings were suspended after Hector Manuel Ulloa’s attorney declared doubt about the 51-year-old defendant’s mental competency.
Ulloa allegedly attacked the woman as she walked July 1 near the 1400 block of North San Fernando Boulevard.
The attempted murder charge, filed July 3, includes allegations that the San Bernardino man used a glass bottle as a deadly and dangerous weapon, caused great bodily injury and has six prior convictions dating back to 1992.
Police responding to a report of a possible fight found the woman — who was suffering from head trauma — in an alley behind an office building, according to Burbank police Sgt. Derek Green.
“Several bystanders directed officers to a male suspect who was seen fleeing the area,” the sergeant said.
Within minutes, officers took Ulloa into custody in the area of Amherst Drive and Broadway, Green said.
“Police interviewed witnesses who reported seeing Ulloa attacking the woman in the alley,” he said then. “Witnesses said they heard screams for help and saw Ulloa kicking and punching the victim numerous times. It appears as though Ulloa targeted the victim by hiding and waiting for her as she walked by.”
The woman was taken to a trauma center, where she was admitted into the intensive care unit in critical condition, according to the sergeant, who said the attack appeared “to be completely random, as there is no known association between … Ulloa and the victim.”