This is very sad. A 78 year old former FBI agent recently charged in a 20 plus year old murder case died while awaiting a psychological evaluation by the court to see if he was fit to stand trial.

A retired FBI agent accused of helping his former mob informants arrange the murder of a Tulsa businessman died a week after he was extradited to Oklahoma to face charges, a hospital spokeswoman said Saturday.

H. Paul Rico, 78, died late Friday, a few hours after a Tulsa County judge put the murder case on hold pending a psychological evaluation to determine if Rico was competent to stand trial.

His family said he had congestive heart failure and had lost 53 pounds since his arrest Oct. 9 in Florida, where he had been living.

....During his arraignment Wednesday, conducted by video feed from the Tulsa County jail, Rico sat in a wheelchair and occasionally moaned but said nothing. His attorney, Garvin Isaacs, at one point interrupted the judge, saying: "I am telling you this man is sick, extremely sick." He requested an emergency medical furlough, saying his client was ailing and needed help; the judge ordered the psychological evaluation.

Isaacs said during that hearing that Rico, who had a pacemaker, was disoriented after being beaten Dec. 5 by an unknown assailant in the Miami-Dade County Jail, but that he had recovered his mental competency and "wants a jury trial to clear his name."

Prosecutors offered this handy excuse: