Brendon Owen "Refuses" To Participate in Status Hearing

Above, a Zoom screen capture of Judge Douglas Wilkins in chamber yesterday.

A status hearing was held yesterday afternoon at Norfolk Superior Court for Brendon Owen, faces eight criminal counts in connection with the death of his estranged spouse, Shirley Owen, including murder, assault in a dwelling, armed home invasion, kidnapping, arson of a dwelling house, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and two abuse prevention order violations.

Owen has been in custody since December 17, 2021, when police say he murdered his former wife, assaulted his former mother-in-law, and set fire to the Franklin home.

As Monday’s proceedings began shortly after 2 pm under the gavel of Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins, the clerk of the court announced to the court andto  defense attorney Neil Madden, who was participating by telephone, that his client “refused” to participate in the hearing from his detention facility. She asked if Madden intended to proceed, and he answered in the affirmative.

Madden explained to Judge Wilkins, that he has a forensic psychologist evaluating Owen, as ordered by the court and that evaluation was supposed to be completed by April 29. “That's why this is a status hearing,” he said. Then he explained that he had some problems making contact with the jail and that they had not been able to provide many openings for Owen. “We had an opening for Monday, that was a snow day. And I was able to get a Jurislink [e.g. similar to Zoom], to allow my doctor to talk.” However, he continued, it turns out Owen was going to Boston Medical Center on that day. After describing a few more similar problems, he concluded, “So basically, we haven't accomplished much since then. But we're moving forward as fast as we can.”

The upshot was that Madden and Owen will likely have nothing to report at their next scheduled hearing, in April but did agree on a status hearing in early May.

Wilkins agreed to the dates but noted that “it won’t be me up here” – implying that another judge will be presiding. Why, was not made clear, though public records show that Wilkins is likely close to mandatory retirement age.