26. Accused killer of elderly NSB woman ruled competent to stand trial 7 years later

Posted Thu, 2009-07-02 03:57
DAYTONA BEACH -- Sharon Hanson has waited seven long years for her mother's accused killer to stand trial, and thanks to a circuit judge's ruling Wednesday that the accused is now competent to stand trial, that could happen as early as next month.

"Our loved one is gone, yet we have no closure to this senseless crime," Hanson wrote to Judge J. David Walsh regarding the Feb. 6, 2002, shooting death of her 75-year-old mother, Rose Crank.

Based on psychiatric reports, Walsh ruled that Karen Blosser is now competent to stand trial, charged with first-degree murder, a felony that could net her life in prison, if convicted.

Blosser, a West Virginia drifter, was deemed incompetent shortly after the murder, in which Crank was shot to death in her New Smyrna Beach home with a .22 caliber pistol, a random victim chosen so her killers could take her car tires.

Blosser's husband, Kenneth, has already been convicted for his role in the crime and sentenced to 25 years in prison. According to prosecutors, Karen Blosser shot Crank and told her husband she "had to do the worst."

Karen Blosser's assistant piublic defender, Matt Phillips has maintained that his client belongs in a psychiatric facility and he may prepare an insanity defense for her at trial.

Being competent means Blosser understands the charges against her and can participate in her defense. Insanity means she may not have been in her right mind at the time of the killing and therefore not responsible for her actions.