Steven Berg pleads not guilty to fatal hammer attack death of Deon Hewitt at Flinders Park due to mental incompetence
A man accused of using a hammer to murder his neighbour — a western suburbs grandfather, pictured — says he is not guilty of the crime due to mental incompetence.
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A man accused of using a hammer to murder his neighbour — a western suburbs grandfather — says he is not guilty of the crime due to mental incompetence.
Steven Patrick Berg, 34, faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with the murder of Dion Hewitt, 74.
Previously, prosecutors have alleged Berg invaded the Flinders Park home shared by Mr Hewitt and his wife, Patricia, in May last year.
They have further alleged Mrs Hewitt ran to the home of another neighbour, Andrew Staalstra, saying her husband had been “killed by a man with a hammer”.
At the time of the incident, Mr Staalstra said he armed himself with a bat and went into the house, finding Mr Hewitt’s body inside.
He said that he then chased a man along neighbouring streets before finally stopping him on the corner of Holbrooks Rd and Jellicoe St.
Mr Staalstra told reporters the man “made a strange statement about some electromagnetic waves penetrating his brain or something” prior to the arrival of police.
During Berg’s subsequent court appearance, his image — but not his name — was suppressed from publication.
On Thursday, counsel for Berg said their client would be pleading not guilty on the basis of mental incompetence.
Under state law, a person found to be mentally incompetent is subject to a limiting term — a period in supervised detention — equal to the jail term an unaffected person would receive for the same offence.
Magistrate Elizabeth Sheppard said Berg’s mental competence was a question for the Supreme Court.
“Because there is a psychiatric report that has to be looked at in more detail by the Supreme Court, I understand there might be a defence available to you,” she told Berg.
“It’s conceded that, on the facts, there is a case to answer so I will be entering (on the file) a plea of not guilty.
“Are you following that?”
Berg — appearing by video link with James Nash House — replied: “Yes.”
Ms Sheppard remanded him in custody until May.
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