MASON CITY — A judge has ruled a man accused of killing two people in Mason City is now mentally competent to stand trial. The judge issued the ruling Tuesday in the case against Peter Veal. The ruling comes less than three months after Veal was found not mentally fit to stand trial and sent to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center for treatment. Veal has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of the attempted murder of a witness.
Officers sent to a home in November to check reports of a shooting found the bodies of Caleb Christensen and Melinda Kavars. Autopsies showed Christensen died from several “sharp-force” injuries and Kavars died from a gunshot wound to her neck and chest.