Associated Press - August 6, 2009 2:05 PM ET

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) - A McKinley County magistrate has granted a defense request for a competency hearing in the case of a Vanderwagen, N.M., man accused in a vehicular homicide case.

Gabriel Livingston, 25, was arrested after two wheelchair-bound residents were struck by a vehicle July 22 as they rode their assistance scooters along the shoulder of a Gallup roadway.

Ronald Skotler was killed and his fiancee, Tina Mullinger, was injured.

Livingston was charged with vehicular homicide and aggravated DWI and cited for violating the state's open container law. He was being held on $200,000 cash bond at the Gallup McKinley jail.

Livingston had faced a preliminary hearing Thursday but Magistrate Henrietta Soland signed an order moving the matter to state District Court, where the competency hearing wasn't immediately scheduled.

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