LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A man arrested last month after two break-ins, assaults and an attempted sexual assault is facing numerous charges, but his mental competency to stand trial has been questioned.

Markel David Plummer, 36, is facing 13 counts — eight felonies and five misdemeanors — for the forcible rape case, which involves two separate incidents hours apart, one in which he assaulted a woman and the second involving a commercial break-in, for which he was arrested on Feb. 28.

Early that day, he entered a woman’s apartment on North Main Street through an unlocked door. The victim awakened to find him in her home and he assaulted her, with authorities concluding he was planning to sexually assault her.

The woman fought back and Plummer fled. Hours later, he was found inside a business in the 1100 block of North Main Street. There, he assaulted the employee and again attempted to flee the scene.

Lakeport Police officers responded to the scene and took Plummer into custody. He has remained in the Lake County Jail since his arrest. He is currently being held without bail.

The charges the District Attorney’s Office has filed against Plummer include felonies of first degree burglary with the intent to commit a sex crime such as rape, sodomy and oral copulation; assault with the intent to commit a sex crime; sexual battery while the victim is restrained; entering an inhabited dwelling with the intent to commit a felony; unlawful entry of a commercial building with intent to commit larceny and any felony; unlawful maliciously destroying a lap top computer; and two counts of threatening an executive officer.

Misdemeanors include sexual battery, unlawful entry to an apartment, assault and battery, prowling and giving false identification to a law enforcement officer.

There also is a special allegation relating to the victim’s vulnerability, Plummer’s violence, previous convictions and a prior prison term, as well as the fact that he was on post-release community supervision and his previous performance on probation or supervision was unsatisfactory.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson is handling the prosecution.

Abelson told Lake County News that Plummer is on post-release community supervision — a type of supervision used for someone released from state prison to the jurisdiction of a county agency — on two felony convictions out of San Francisco County.

The first of the cases, for which he was convicted in July 2019, is for assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, while the second conviction, from September 2021, is for false imprisonment.

Plummer entered a not guilty plea on March 4.

He was due to appear in court for preliminary hearing on Wednesday, but Abelson said a doubt was declared that day regarding Plummer’s competency to stand trial.

That competency issue appears in court records to have been raised by the Lake County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Plummer.

“We handle the hearings on competency in Department 4 as part of the mental health court,” Abelson said.

Court records indicate a doctor’s report on Plummer’s mental competency is expected on April 8.

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