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Mental evaluation ordered for Loughner

Jared Lee Loughner is shown after his arrest on January 8, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona. He was arraigned on five federal charges including the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on January 10, 2011. Photo released by the Pima County Sheriff's Office on January 10, 2011. UPI/U.S. Marshalls/HO
Jared Lee Loughner is shown after his arrest on January 8, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona. He was arraigned on five federal charges including the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on January 10, 2011. Photo released by the Pima County Sheriff's Office on January 10, 2011. UPI/U.S. Marshalls/HO | License Photo

TUCSON, March 22 (UPI) -- A judge ordered the suspect in the Jan. 8 Arizona shooting spree undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, prosecutors said.

Jared Lee Loughner faces 49 counts in the shootings outside a Tucson supermarket in which six people died and 13 people, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., were injured.

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In federal court documents, Loughner's defense attorneys argued their client should not be moved from Tucson to the Springfield, Mo., facility for the evaluation because he was "seriously ill" and the transfer could exacerbate his mental state and "disrupt counsel's relationship with him," CNN reported Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said in his order he "acknowledges that moving the defendant to Springfield for a relatively short period of time will be temporarily inconvenient for the defense team. But the inconvenience is unavoidable."

Burns set an April 29 deadline for the evaluation. A competency hearing is scheduled for May 25.

Loughner pleaded not guilty. Among other things, he is charged in the deaths of federal judge John M. Roll, Giffords' staff member Gabriel M. Zimmerman, and Dorothy J. Morris, Phyllis C. Schneck, Dorwan C. Stoddard and 9-year-old Christina Taylor-Green.

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