Prosecutors' plans to send murder suspect Henry L. Cozad to Salem for a mental evaluation are on hold. The Oregon State Hospital doesn't have a place to put him.

On Monday, Judge Martin Stone approved a motion to send the 18-year-old man for an up to 30-day evaluation to determine his competency for prosecution.

However, Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said the hospital won't be able to take the teen for at least another three weeks, and then only for a four- or five-hour assessment.

Last week Coos County sheriff's deputies arrested the teen on a murder charge in the death of Linda Foley, his father's girlfriend. The three shared a home in Bunker Hill. The DA said Cozad suffers from mental disabilities that he and the man's family described as severe autism.

Instead of waiting to send Cozad to Salem, public defenders Carole Hamilton and John Meynink are trying to get a psychologist or psychiatrist to evaluate him while he is being held at the Coos County jail.

"What we're trying to do is circumvent the whole thing," Frasier said.

If an evaluator determines Cozad can't aid and assist in his own defense, a circuit court judge will be asked to commit the teen to the state hospital for treatment in hope that one day he will. Such a commitment could last up to three years, Frasier said.

"That's what I'm worried about," the DA said.

If the hospital determines he will never be able to aid and assist, Cozad could be sent back to Coos County. If the judge agrees with the evaluation, then the case would be dismissed. Should that happen, without some other mechanism to keep Cozad under supervision, the DA said, he could be released back into the community "like nothing ever happened."

 "In this type of case it is very frustrating," Frasier said.

The DA plans to look into the possibility of a civil commitment for Cozad if a dismissal of this type occurs.