Laungatasi Ahio

A Millbrae murder suspect committed to a state mental hospital before he could stand trial for the 2010 stabbing of an alleged romantic rival is fit for prosecution, a judge ruled yesterday.

Judge Jack Grandsaert declared Laungatasi Samana Ahio competent after a hearing Friday in which a defense doctor and one from Napa State Hospital offered differing opinions on his ability to aid in his own defense.

Competency is a person’s ability to aid in his or her defense at trial while sanity is a person’s mental state at the time of an alleged crime.

After finding Ahio mentally fit, Grandsaert ordered him back to court Jan. 16 to set a jury trial date.

Friday’s hearing was at the request of Ahio’s defense attorney who contested the hospital’s conclusion he should return to San Mateo County for prosecution.

Ahio, 23, is charged in the Aug. 4, 2010 murder of Jared Afu. If convicted of murder and the special allegation of lying in wait, he faces life in prison without parole. Afu’s friends reported seeing him stabbed by Ahio around 11:30 p.m. The next afternoon, a bloodied backpack containing identification and a bloody knife was discovered a block from the school, on the side of the New Vision United Methodist Church on Chadbourne Avenue. Ahio surrendered to police that night.

Authorities suggested Ahio killed Afu over jealousy involving a girlfriend who he was convicted in July 2010 of battering. In June 2012, Ahio was committed to Napa State Hospital but returned in the fall.

He remains in custody without bail.