A judge has ordered a mental evaluation of a man who reportedly raced into Powell at high speeds and crashed into multiple vehicles earlier this month.

“... There is reasonable cause to believe that the defendant has a mental illness or deficiency making him unfit to proceed at this state,” Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah wrote of Cameron M. Boni in a Monday order.

Boni is alleged to have sped into Powell city limits at 143 miles per hour and crashed into four different vehicles on Coulter Avenue on the afternoon of May 11. The 49-year-old Meeteetse resident is facing a felony count of aggravated assault and battery relating to injuries suffered by one of the other drivers, a felony count of property destruction related to the damage he caused and a misdemeanor count of driving without valid auto insurance.

Boni was set to have a preliminary hearing on the charges on Monday. However, it was postponed and the case put on hold after his court-appointed attorney requested the mental evaluation.

When the Wyoming Highway Patrol interviewed Boni at the scene, he explained he was speeding because “he felt people had been following him for about a week now, and thought someone may have rigged his car to explode,” Trooper Danny Hite recounted in an affidavit.

“Boni could not say who specifically was out to hurt him, but he was certain that people were trying to hurt him because of the money he was supposed to get,” Hite added.

At Boni’s initial court appearance on May 12, Deputy Park County Attorney Jack Hatfield alluded to concerns about the defendant’s competency; the prosecutor asserted that Boni “is either going to be spending a very long time in prison, or he’s probably going to be spending the rest of his life in the state hospital.”

Because Boni has two prior felonies, and because the state is alleging the recent crash amounted to a violent felony, Hatfield has charged him as a “habitual criminal,” which would carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Boni remains in the Park County Detention Center, with bail set at $100,000 as he awaits an examination from a mental health professional selected by the state.

Although one driver went to the emergency room with pain after the May 11 crashes, no one was seriously injured, which a Powell police officer called “miraculous.”