Kanuri Qawi, 46, stands accused of fatally stabbing his roommate, John Laird Milton Sr., 59. Authorities found Milton's body found Sept. 13 in the home he shared with Qawi at Moonlight Terrace at Dignity Commons, a housing facility for veterans at Alameda Point, the site of the former Alameda Naval Air Station.

During a hearing in an Alameda courtroom Friday, Alameda County Deputy Public Defender Sam Greyson, asked a judge to suspend the criminal proceedings against Qawi amid concerns about Qawi's state of mind.

"I have doubts about Mr. Qawi's competence to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his defense," Greyson said.

Superior Court Judge Delbert Gee agreed to put the criminal case on hold and will appoint two doctors to evaluate Qawi, who will return to court June 11.

Qawi was expected to enter a standard not-guilty plea, and attorneys would have exchanged evidence in the case, said prosecutor Charlette Green.

Qawi was sentenced to prison in 1991 for assault and battery in an unprovoked attack on a couple in Oakland. Police quoted him as saying that the woman had started the Vietnam War. He was paroled in 1993 but was soon returned to prison for parole violations, including stalking a sales clerk whom he insisted was his wife.

Qawi's parole ended in 1997, but he remained hospitalized in a series of one-year commitments under a state law that allows for the institutionalization of released convicts who are mentally ill and deemed to be a danger.

Qawi challenged his incarceration and to being medicated against his will at state hospitals, eventually convincing a state appeals court that his case had merit.

The case led the state Supreme Court to rule 6-1 in January 2004 that mentally ill former prisoners held in state hospitals after serving their sentences have the right to refuse psychiatric medication unless they are incompetent or dangerous.

Justices said Qawi had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and medicated against his will between 1995 and 2004. The court also said psychiatric evaluators at the hospital had found that Qawi "consistently maintains that he suffers no mental illness and requires no medication or other forms of treatment."

In a declaration quoted by the court, the Napa State Hospital medical director said that "without his antipsychotic medication, (Qawi) would pose a markedly increased risk to the safety and security of staff and patients."

Qawi was eventually released from Napa State Hospital in 2005. After Qawi allegedly killed his roommate in Alameda, he was arrested Oct. 12 at a downtown Oakland bus stop.

Chronicle staff writer Bob Egelko contributed to this report. Chronicle staff writer Bob Egelko contributed to this report.