Accused still await trial in Summer’s death

Jonathan Lytle, accused in one of the most shocking incidents of child abuse in Spokane history, may not be mentally fit to stand trial.

He and his wife, Adriana Lytle, are scheduled to be tried separately this fall on homicide by abuse charges in the death of Summer Phelps, the 4-year-old with flaming red hair and a brilliant smile who died at Deaconess Medical Center on March 10, 2007.

Summer, police records say, was bitten, beaten, repeatedly tortured with a dog’s electric shock collar and forced to wash urine-soaked clothing in a bathtub where she eventually contracted pneumonia.

Lytle, Summer’s 29-year-old father, was recently transferred from Spokane County Jail to Eastern State Hospital for a sanity evaluation.

“I believe that the defendant has serious mental problems,” said Dennis Dressler, of the Counsel for the Defense, Lytle’s court-appointed attorney, in an affidavit filed March 6 in Spokane County Superior Court.

Lytle’s mental evaluation, ordered by Superior Court Judge Michael P. Price, was scheduled to take as long as 15 days. A “developmental disabilities” professional was requested for the evaluation.

If the court rules he is competent, Jonathan Lytle will be tried Sept. 8.

His 33-year old wife, Summer’s stepmother, is scheduled for trial Oct. 13. Judge Price will preside over both trials.

If convicted, they could face 20 years to life in prison.

In a court document earlier this year, public defenders Anna Nordtvedt and John Hunt Whaley, the lawyers representing Adriana Lytle, argued that she should be tried separately from her husband.

“Clearly, both parties have minimized their mistreatment of Summer Phelps, and attempt to lay the lion’s share of the blame on the co-defendant spouse,” the public defenders say.

While Jonathan Lytle is “fired up” to move the case out of Spokane County, Adriana Lytle wants her trial here, the lawyers added.

Meanwhile, the state’s Children’s Administration has held off on a mandatory child fatality review of Summer’s death, saying it must wait until the trials are finished because participants in the fatality review are likely to be called as witnesses.

In the wake of Summer’s death, Spokane County has received $2.75 million to send nurses into the homes of some low-income pregnant women to help prevent abuse and neglect.

The program, with five years of revenue from federal and state governments and from regional health districts, focuses on home visits during the first two years of life. The county received the first of the funds in October.

But the program serves 220 women – half the eligible population, according to Elaine Conley, director of community and family services for the Spokane Regional Health District.