The trial of a Warren County teen accused of killing her stepmother has been postponed from next week until Aug. 20 so doctors can determine if she is mentally competent to stand trial, District Attorney Ricky Smith said.

Tyla Denise Vega, 14, 100 Jones Road, appeared Thursday in Warren County Circuit Court, where her attorney, Marshall Sanders, requested the mental evaluation, Smith said.

Sanders requested that presiding Judge Isadore Patrick allow the defense to hire a private psychiatrist or psychologist, said Smith.

Sanders was given 30 days to obtain the evaluation or Vega will be sent to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield or another facility chosen by the prosecution, said Smith.

Vega’s trial had been set to begin Tuesday, but the DA said he did not vigorously oppose the request.

“Due to the nature of this case, we felt it would be better not to fight and to allow it to happen,” he said.

“The supreme court has been clear, if a question of the competence of a defendant comes up — to converse with their attorney to put on a defense, to understand the difference between right and wrong, (or) any question of competence — the court’s been clear that there has to be a hearing and the judge has to make a determination on the record,” said Smith.

An order had been approved in August allowing Sanders to name a private psychiatrist to evaluate Vega but for unknown reasons it was not done then, said Smith.

Sanders did not return a call to his office.

Vega was indicted in July for murder following the May 2 death of 32-year-old Michelle Vega at the family home at 100 Jones Road. Michelle Vega was shot in the face, officials said, and Tyla Vega, then an eighth-grader at Vicksburg Junior High School, was seen driving away in the family’s vehicle minutes before Michelle Vega’s body was found.

She was arrested in Greenville six days later after eluding authorities from multiple jurisdictions.

Vega was ordered tried as an adult and held without bond until a hearing in Warren County Circuit Court Aug. 11, at which time Patrick ruled she was entitled to bond and set it at $75,000.

Bond was posted Oct. 26 and Vega was released to family members in Tallulah, where she lived until the company that had put up her bond revoked it, citing contractual violations, officials said. She was returned to the Warren County Jail Dec. 5, where she has been since.

The trial of Jeremy Blake Bowlin, a second Warren County teen accused of murder, appears set to go forward Tuesday with jury selection, according to the circuit court schedule.

Bowlin, 19, is accused of shooting his mother’s live-in boyfriend, Timothy Wayne Harmon, 25, 3400 U.S. 80, Lot 4, on Jan. 6, 2011.

Smith said the scheduled Feb. 27 murder trial of Winifred Allen has also been continued at the request of Allen’s attorney, Eugene Perrier, who “said he was not prepared to go to trial at this time,” Smith said.

Perrier could not be reached.

Allen, 64, 2255 Freetown Road, Lot 1, was arrested May 26 at 1254 Dillon Ridge Road, where his son, Gerald Wayne “Jerry” Allen, who was 36 and lived at 1626 Broadhill Drive, was shot multiple times. Winifred Allen was indicted for murder in July.