Fifty-three felony defendants in Okaloosa County are currently deemed incompetent to stand trial, according to county officials.
One of them, Ronald Wayne Allen, walked out of the Okaloosa County Jail on June 2 under a court-approved conditional release order after spending 1,868 days in custody.
His case offers a rare public glimpse into Florida’s competency system. Allen was arrested in April 2021 on multiple felony charges involving firearms and remained entangled in Florida’s competency-restoration system until his release five years later.
Court records reviewed by Mid Bay News show Allen’s case moved through repeated competency evaluations, including commitment to state mental health services, before a judge ultimately approved his release in early June 2026.
The Charges
Allen was arrested on April 21, 2021, for aggravated assault, shooting into an occupied structure/vehicle, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, criminal mischief, and resisting an officer without violence.
Witness statements claim Allen was walking down Mare Creek Road in Crestview where Stephen Brown was using a bulldozer to clear property. Allen made a “cut throat” sign to Mr. Brown, who then turned the bulldozer off. Allen told the victim to stop working, or he would “sic his boys” on him. Brown resumed working and witnessed Allen walk into the woods and return with a shouldered firearm. Allen then shot at the bulldozer with Mr. Brown still inside.
Competency
In Florida, defendants cannot be prosecuted if they don’t understand the proceedings or they can’t assist counsel. The timeline of Allen’s arrest to his placement in state mental health care, to release is staggering.
In August of 2021, an expert found Allen unable to stand trial. Days later, on August 27 2021, Judge Michael Flowers found Allen incompetent and committed him to a DCF facility.
Court records provide a limited public picture because many competency evaluations and reports are confidential.
What we do know is that from 2021 to December 2024, Ronald Wayne Allen was in a diversion program ordered by Judge Flowers. In March of 2025, Judge David Oberliesen took over Allen’s case, where he was subsequently found competent to stand trial. Judge Oberliesen ordered a second competency expert in December 2025, which found Allen was again incompetent to stand trial – leading, ultimately, to his release from jail in June 2026 after five continuous years on the taxpayer’s dime.
The Cost To Okaloosa Taxpayers
After more than half a decade in government custody, Allen’s case also raises questions about the financial costs of Florida’s competency restoration system. The known cost of Allen’s confinement represents only a fraction of the total public expense.
According to Okaloosa County’s Public Information Officer Nick Tomecek, Allen spent 598 days housed in the Okaloosa County Jail before being transferred into state mental health custody for treatment.
“We calculate the approximate cost per day for an inmate to be approximately $80,” Tomecek said in response to our inquiry.
Using the county’s estimates, Allen’s time in the Okaloosa County Jail alone cost local taxpayers approximately $47,840.
Chief Corrections Officer John Moring says competency cases place unique demands on the criminal justice system because they often involve multiple agencies and limited treatment resources.
“It is a very extensive process involving multiple departments and has to be conducted with a very limited number of beds in the facilities in the State of Florida for this process,” Moring said.
With 598 days logged inside the Okaloosa County Jail, Allen spent the majority of his time, roughly 1,270 days, in a state DCF facility.
According to a Florida state government report, when adjusted for inflation from 2018, it costs $80.54 to house an inmate for a single day in a state prison facility. Using that information as a guide, we can estimate the cost of Allen’s maintenance in County and state facilities at $150,609. Those figures do not include medical treatments, transportation costs, court hearings, public defender services, or the cost associated with treatment in a DCF facility.
State officials were not able to immediately provide the costs of forensic mental health treatment, competency restoration services, transportation, housing, and supervision over the course of this five-year case.
Conditional Release
Mid Bay News has confirmation from Okaloosa County Jail personnel that Ronald Wayne Allen was released on June 2, 2026, “to the street.” The release plan has not been made publicly available.
Allen’s release closes one chapter of a case that spent more than five years moving through Florida’s competency restoration system without a public trial.
What remains are larger questions about the state’s ability to treat mentally ill defendants, the cost to taxpayers along the way, and the constitutional rights of people found unable to stand trial.
After more than five years in custody, potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenditures, and no public trial, Ronald Wayne Allen simply walked out of the Okaloosa County Jail back into the community, not with a verdict, but with a conditional release set by the court.
There are currently 53 other felony defendants in the Okaloosa County Jail deemed incompetent to proceed, suggesting Allen’s case may be unusual in length, but not in circumstance.
