LUBBOCK, Texas — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Thomas John Boukamp was mentally competent enough to stand trial for charges related to the November 2020 kidnapping of a Lubbock teen.

The trial for Boukamp, 21, was originally scheduled to start in August 2021. The trial was delayed so the court could do a psychological evaluation of Boukamp.

“Defendant Thomas John Boukamp is not now suffering from a mental disease or defect that would interfere with his ability to meet the legal criteria of competency to stand trial,” U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix said in the order.

Judge Hendrix previously ruled against a defense motion to postpone the competency hearing.

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