Albrecht Muth, courtesy of Georgetown Patch

A judge ruled today that Albrecht Muth, accused of killing wife Viola Drath last year, is not only competent to stand trial, but will also be able to represent himself once the trial starts in late March, writes Homicide Watch:

[Judge] Canan described Muth as “eccentric, unique, manipulative, (and) arrogant,” in issuing his competency decision.

“He certainly has a unique personality, but that doesn’t make him incompetent to stand trial,” he said.

The judge said his ruling on Muth’s competence, which came after a hearing that lasted eight days and stretched over three weeks, was influenced by the testimony of Michele Godwin, a clinical psychologist who has been treating Muth at Saint Elizabeths Mental Hospital. Godwin and the hospital had previously said that Muth was incompetent, but changed their opinion in September.

Prosecutors had long claimed that Muth was simply pretending to be crazy, and that his various outbursts and odd claims (he still says that he’s an Iraqi general, that Drath was murdered by Iranian hit men and that an angel had ordered him to go on a hunger strike) were merely part of ruse to be ruled incompetent.

Whatever ends up happening, Muth hinted that the trial might be as odd as its lead-up has been: he claimed today that he only needed General David Petraeus to testify.