A Payne County (Oklahoma) Sheriff’s deputy leads Adacia Chambers’ family into the district court room. Shown, from the front: boyfriend Jesse Gaylord, mother Pamela Plumer, father Floyd Chambers and brother Michael Chambers.

STILLWATER, Okla. – A state judge ruled Thursday the young woman accused of crashing her car into an Oklahoma State University (OSU) homecoming parade crowd and killing four spectators is competent to stand trial on second-degree murder charges.

Special Payne County District Judge Louis Duel issued his finding on the basis of a medical report that Adacia Chambers, 25, of Stillwater, understood the serious charges against her and could assist in her defense.

The judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for Chambers on April 7. She is charged with four counts of second-degree murder and 46 counts of assault and battery with means likely to produce death for the parade bystanders injured in the Oct. 24 crash.

Chambers, who appeared in court in handcuffs and an orange prisoner jumpsuit, has been confined to the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita, Oklahoma for the past month, undergoing psychological testing and competency evaluation requested by her attorney, Tony Coleman.

Court documents said Chambers told jailers at her initial booking that she was suicidal at the time of the tragedy. Record also showed she had received treatment for mental illness in the past.

Attorney Coleman did not object to the judge’s initial competency ruling but said he might revisit the question in the future. Several procedural hearings are expected before a trial is held.

Police reports at the time of the crash said Chambers dodged a police barricade and struck an unmanned police motorcycle before slamming her car into spectators just minutes before the homecoming parade concluded.

Killed were a 65-year-old married couple, a 23-year-old college student and a 2-year-old boy. Several spectators were seriously injured.

Blood tests showed she had a blood alcohol count of 0.01, a nearly undetectable amount. Her attorney, in requesting a competency evaluation, produced a report from Dr. Shawn Roberson, a psychologist, saying she appeared to be “acutely psychotic” and suffered from “severe mental illness.”

Details for this story were provided by The Stillwater (Oklahoma) News Press.