WICHITA, Kansas, September 4, 2008 – The man accused of kidnapping a Viola woman from a convenience store has been ruled competent to stand trial.

Robert Abner wasn’t in court for long. The entire proceeding lasted just over one minute. But that’s all it took for the judge to find him mentally competent to stand trial.

He faces 10 felony charges including robbery, kidnapping, sodomy and six counts of rape. Prosecutors say he abducted Joyce Patterson from a Viola convenience store where she worked back in June and spent 13 days on the run before police arrested him in Springfield, Oregon.

Abner’s attorney tried to convince the judge that he suffered from mental problems and was not able to defend himself in court. Bu the judge did not agree.

Abner will now be back in court on September 11th for a preliminary hearing.

The Patterson family is happy with the judge’s ruling, but did not want to comment further on the case.