A district court judge ordered Gaithersburg resident Tiffany Zhang, 29, who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of her mother, 63-year-old Guichun Hu, to be held without bond Wednesday during a bond hearing in Rockville.
Maryland District Court Judge Michael O. Glynn said it was “clear” Zhang was not competent to stand trial and would be held because of the condition of her mental health. Zhang was charged in the death of her mother, who was found Nov. 4 by police in the yard of the family’s home on the 19400 block of Olive Tree Way in Gaithersburg.
During the hearing, Glynn asked Zhang, who appeared in court via video livestream from the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds, if she knew where she was.
“People tell me that I’m at a jail,” Zhang said.
When Glynn asked Zhang if she understood that she is facing a murder charge, she asked Glynn to define “murder.” Zhang also stated that her mother was still alive. “She’s not dead. I don’t think anyone dies, they just disappear,” she said.
At the end of the hearing, Glynn ordered Zhang held without bond and scheduled a competency hearing for April 29. The hearing is expected to determine whether Zhang is competent to stand trial.
Zhang is being represented by a public defender. “The case is still in the very early stages, and it would be a mistake for anyone to reach any conclusions at this time, but our office is diligently working to investigate the facts and circumstances of this case on behalf of Ms. Zhang,” a spokesperson for the Office of the Public Defender wrote Wednesday afternoon in an email to MoCo360.
On Nov. 4, Zhang was arrested by Montgomery County police officers after they responded to a 911 call in which she said she had killed her mother and was waiting for police in the front yard of her home, according to charging documents.
Just before 10 a.m., police received Zhang’s call, according to police and radio transmissions. According to the 911 dispatcher, Zhang said she had used her phone to kill her mother “yesterday at twilight” in front of “eyewitnesses and bystanders.”
Officers told the dispatcher there was an extensive history of responding to calls from Zhang’s address and suggested the dispatcher call the mother. According to radio transmissions, the dispatcher responded that two attempts to contact the mother went to voicemail.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found the body of a woman outside of the home who was later identified as Hu, charging documents said. Hu was pronounced dead at the scene and she was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to determine the manner and cause of her death, according to police.
While at the scene, officers observed “obvious trauma” to Hu’s head when they found her in the front yard of her home, according to charging documents.
Zhang was then arrested “without incident,” according to the charging documents, and later confessed to killing her mother. Police then took Zhang to the department’s headquarters in Gaithersburg for further questioning, charging documents stated.
At the headquarters, Zhang said she had beaten her mother to death after luring her outside, according to charging documents.
According to The Washington Post, Zhang was scheduled for a bond hearing two days after her arrest. However, correctional officers at the county jail said it would be unsafe to have Zhang stand with other defendants in a room equipped with a camera for defendants to appear by video in the courtroom.
“It would require both the use of force and a restraint chair to bring her in to the podium,” a jail staff member told District Judge Aileen Oliver, the Post reported.
According to digital court records, Zhang’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 6.
