New Bonelli hearing

Court officers say a hearing was scheduled this morning at Walhalla for a judge to decide whether an elderly man charged in two Oconee County homicides should be committed for hospitalization at the State Department of Mental Health. It’s another round of hearings involving 86-year old Nicholas Bonelli. Probate Judge Kenny Johns, the presiding judge, told 96.3/WGOG NEWS that, by the Probate Court code, the hearing is closed to the press and the general public. At a General Sessions hearing two weeks ago, Circuit Judge Cordell Maddox ruled Bonelli incompetent to stand trial and unlikely to become competent any time soon. Bonelli was arrested last year and charged with the murders of two women, one of whom he shared a home.