Competency Hearing, Psych Exam Ordered For Chelsea Bruck's Alleged Killer

MONROE (WWJ) - A psychiatric evaluation and competency hearing have been ordered for a 27-year-old man charged in the death of a young woman who disappeared from a Halloween party nearly two years ago.

Daniel Clay — clad in a striped jumpsuit with a chain around his waist  — made a brief appearance in Monroe District Court alongside his attorney and prosecutors, Thursday afternoon.

Clay stands charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing 22-year-old Chelsea Bruck, who the Wayne County Medical Examiner found died of blunt force trauma to the head.

In asking for the exam, Clay's attorney, Russell Smith told Judge Jack Vitale his client's competency is something he cannot determine without an expert.

"At the jail he was placed in a confinement cell for quite some period of time and has been seen by psychiatric personnel and prescribed a certain medication," Smith said.

The purpose of such an exam is to determine if a defendant is mentally fit to understand the charges against him and to assist his attorney in his defense.

Vitale granted the request, he said, "to err in the side of caution."

Bruck, last seen alive at a massive party at a rural Frenchtown Township property early in the morning of Oct. 26, 2014. Her remains were discovered, several months later — on April 24, 2015 — in a wooded lot on Briar Hill Road in Ash Township.

Prosecutor now say DNA taken from Clay following his arrest on an unrelated charge led to the break in the Bruck case after state police were able to match his DNA to DNA found on Bruck's Poison Ivy costume.

Clay, who was arrested at his Frenchtown Township home last Friday, allegedly told his girlfriend that he'd accidentally killed Bruck during rough, but consensual sex.

He remains held without bond.