EAST LANSING — The man charged with operating and maintaining a meth lab inside of Wells Hall on Michigan State University's campus earlier this year was found incompetent to stand trial in 54B District Court on Friday, Aug. 14.
Xin Tong, who was 31 at the time, was arraigned in April on felony charges for malicious destruction of a building over $20,000 and felony controlled substance-operate/maintain lab involving methamphetamine.
During the Aug. 14 hearing, Judge Lisa Babcock, who was standing in for Judge Molly Hennessey Greenwalt, said that the competency report found that Tong was incompetent to stand trial, though he is "likely to attain competence."
Ingham County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Randall Behrmann and defense attorney Zhu Shen told Babcock they agreed with the report, finding him unfit to stand trial but restorable, allowing him to be referred back to treatment at a center for forensic psychiatry.
Tong was originally set to have a hearing on Sept. 11, but will instead return to court at 9 a.m. Nov. 13 in Greenwalt's courtroom for a competency review.
Wells Hall closed on campus on Monday, April 27 after students reported to their final exams in the building and an odor was identified in the building.
The building was supposed to reopen Tuesday, April 28, but the university announced the same morning the building would remain closed all week.
On the evening of Wednesday, April 29, Michigan State University police announced the reason behind the closure, saying Tong was found in the building on Sunday, Aug. 26 with sodium hydroxide pellets, hydrochloric acid, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone and butane − all items that can be purchased legally, and can be used to make methamphetamine.
MSU police officials said they did not locate a meth lab inside the building, just the materials and equipment that could be used to operate one, all contained within his personal property.
MSU police listed his offense date in previously acquired court records as April 10, 16 days before police said they found him in the building with chemicals and materials
MSU Police Chief Mike Yankowski said officers responded to the call on April 26 and found Tong, who had an expired MSU student identification card on him, on the fifth floor of the building with four to five bags. After receiving a search warrant, they found the unlabeled containers with unknown liquids in them.
Tong was ordered held in lieu of a $500,000 cash bond. He would face up to 20 years is prison if convicted on the methamphetamine lab charge.
While Tong was a student at MSU at one time, he has not been enrolled since 2022, then-Ingham County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Nicole Matusko said during the April 30 arraignment hearing.
Contact Karly Graham at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @KarlyGrahamJrn.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Man charged with operating meth lab on MSU campus found incompetent