In 2017 a Marine recruit allegedly hit his drill instructor, and after multiple failed competency hearings he remains locked up in a federal prison hospital with no charges and no trial set.
Now a lawyer is fighting for his release, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Monday.
Jay-Ar Ruiz, 28, shipped to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in November of 2017, where his lawyer said he quickly started to show signs of erratic behavior, the Union-Tribune reported, which came to a head when one of Ruiz’s drill instructors confronted him over the recruit’s alleged violation of a restraining order.
Earlier in 2017 a women had filed a restraining order against Ruiz, but when the recruit got to boot camp he allegedly started to write to her, violating the order, the Union-Tribune wrote.
When he was confronted by a drill instructor, Ruiz allegedly struck the drill instructor, who reportedly responded by placing the recruit in a bear hug until he passed out.
After being revived and given medical treatment, Ruiz was sent to the brig aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, where he would spend the next 22 months before being sent to a federal medical center in Springfield, Missouri, the Union-Tribune reported.
While awaiting his article 32 hearing — used to determine which charges would be brought against Ruiz— it became clear to his first military lawyer that Ruiz was not mentally fit enough to defend himself, Bethany Payton-O’Brien, Ruiz’s current lawyer, told the Union-Tribune.
“Within days (of arriving at boot camp) he starts exhibiting behaviors with this personality disorder,” attorney Beth Payton-O’Brien told the Union-Tribune. “He gets dropped within 30 days. He should have never been recruited.”
It took six months for Navy doctors to examine Ruiz’s mental health and it took at least two failed competency hearings before Ruiz was eventually transferred to a federal mental facility in November 2019, the Union-Tribune reported.
Payton-O’Brien told the Union-Tribune that the Marine Corps is willing to drop the case against him and move to administratively separate Ruiz, but the lawyer questioned whether Ruiz would be mentally competent to stand before an administrative board.
Payton-O’Brien has not yet responded to requests for comments from Marine Corps Times, saying she is awaiting permission to talk from her client.
A spokesman for the recruit depot in San Diego told Marine Corps Times he was unable to comment on the Ruiz case due to privacy concerns.
