Nearly nine years after DeShaune Stewart killed two Dublin, Ohio, postal supervisors in a workplace attack, he is asking to leave the federal psychiatric facility where he has been held — and a federal judge is set to weigh the request next Friday.
The proposed move would send him to a treatment facility in Columbia, South Carolina, but prosecutors say the plan comes with too many unanswered questions about supervision, medication and public safety.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, the Bureau of Prisons says Stewart is no longer a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person or serious property damage. The agency has proposed placing him at a South Carolina facility, while federal prosecutors oppose the move and say they do not know the facility’s compliance track record. Prosecutors also said no Ohio mental-health facility was willing to supervise Stewart’s medication and treatment.
The case began on Dec. 23, 2017, when Stewart went to the Emerald Parkway post office in Dublin and shot his supervisor, Lance Herrera-Dempsey. Later that morning, postmaster Ginger Ballard was killed in an apartment parking lot, where authorities arrested Stewart with a handgun, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A 2018 federal indictment said both victims were killed because of their official duties.
Why The Next Hearing Matters
Stewart was later found not guilty by reason of insanity after psychologists determined he had experienced manic and psychotic episodes and was not fully aware of his actions, according to an Associated Press report carried by WCBE. He has since remained in federal psychiatric custody.
The proposed transfer is not Stewart’s first attempt to leave secure confinement. A 2023 plan would have placed him with his mother, but a federal court found the Bureau of Prisons’ safety determination insufficient; prosecutors now argue that the South Carolina placement would be tantamount to releasing him into the community, according to The Dispatch. The upcoming hearing will determine whether the proposed transfer can move forward or Stewart remains confined for treatment.
