Barnes unfit to stand trial in attack

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - A Williamson County woman charged with opening fire at a Census worker a year ago has been declared incompetent to stand trial.

Carolyn Barnes, an attorney, is currently receiving treatment in a state hospital. The ruling that she is not competent to participate in her own defense was based on a May psychiatric examination, said Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley.

Barnes is charged with aggravated assault in the May 2010 attack. The Census worker was not hit in the shooting, but Barnes is accused of firing several shots.

According to Williamson County jail records, Barnes had been booked into the WIlliamson County jail eight times before for charges ranging from contempt of court to making a terroristic threat. In 2002, a Williamson County jury found Barnes guilty of interfering with a routine traffic stop.

Barnes' arrest history does not stop in Williamson County. In January Barnes was arrested at the Travis County Courthouse after she allegedly hit a Travis County deputy at the security checkpoint after he found a knife in her possession and asked her to leave it in her car.

In February a Williamson county judge appointed Barnes an attorney and postponed the trial until June to give Barnes a chance to find her own attorney.

A conviction in the aggravated assault charge that Barnes faces carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.