Hearing reset in Ramey murder

SANDPOINT — A Coeur d’Alene woman’s arraignment on a charge of first-degree murder is being postponed while she undergoes a mental health evaluation.

Judith Marie Carpenter was scheduled to enter a plea to the charge on Monday in 1st District Court, although her defense counsel requested a one-month continuance so the evaluation can be completed.

“We’re still trying to get that completed,” Coeur d’Alene Robyn McPherson told Judge Barbara Buchanan during Carpenter’s arraignment.

Bonner County Prosecutor Katie Edburg did not object to a continuance.

Buchanan set a plea hearing for Nov. 25.

Carpenter, 57, is accused of shooting Shirley Ann Ramey to death at Ramey’s Trestle Creek home on April 5, 2017. Carpenter denied involvement in Ramey’s death following her arrest in Coeur d’Alene.

Carpenter invoked her right to remain silent during a preliminary hearing in Bonner County Magistrate Court last month and did not testify during the proceeding.

Carpenter was ordered to stand trial after sheriff’s deputies and Idaho State Police officials testified that a semiautomatic Glock pistol belonging to Carpenter was linked the killing of Ramey through ballistic analyses. Carpenter also possessed a lever-action rifle that was stolen from the Ramey residence, according to court documents.

It also emerged during the hearing that Carpenter spent time in state hospitals in Montana and Idaho for unspecified reasons after she was arrested for allegedly threatening a motorist with a firearm in Montana on the same day Ramey, 78, was slain.

Carpenter is being held at the Bonner County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.