A man charged with the murder of a Silver Creek woman in 2006 has been ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial, and Floyd County District Attorney Leigh Patterson said she intends to ask that he be involuntarily committed to a mental institution.

Albert Lee Bennett, 86, has been charged with fatally shooting Vera Elizabeth “Nib” Hyde, 80, sometime between Dec. 1 and Dec. 2, 2006.

His trial was delayed pending the results of a mental evaluation, and he had been held at Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital until he was released to the Floyd County Jail earlier this month.

Patterson said Bennett has been found mentally incompetent, but the hospital sent him back to the jail because he did not meet the hospital’s internal standards for commitment.

She said she intends to seek a civil involuntary commitment hearing in an attempt to ensure Bennett is kept at a state mental institution.

Police first suspected Hyde died in a fall but sent her body to the GBI to determine an official cause of death.

Hyde’s body was found at her 135 Reeceburg Road home by a granddaughter after the elderly woman missed a church meeting Dec. 2, police reported.

Bennett was arrested and has been detained since Feb. 21, 2007.

According to the investigator’s summary of the case:

Bennett showed a history of jealous and intimidating behavior in previous relationships, and notes Hyde left on a calendar showed the same pattern in their friendship.

Bennett also on many occasions reportedly attempted to force Hyde into a relationship with him, but “they were friends and nothing more from Nib’s perspective.”