Four charges of aggravated first-degree murder were re-filed by King County prosecutors last week against Leemah Carneh, who currently is being held at Western State Hospital.

Carneh, 26, is charged with the slaying in March 2001 of four people in their Des Moines home-Josie Peterson, 17, an Evergreen High School cheerleader, her boyfriend Taelor Marks, 17, and his grandparents, Richard and Leola Larson, 63 and 64.

The Larsons were shot, according to police investigators, while Marks and Peterson were brutally beaten.

Investigators said Carneh, who was 19 at the time, allegedly hid the bodies of Marks' grandparents after he gunned them down, then waited inside the house for Peterson and Marks and ambushed them when they came home.

Prosecutors said Carneh was obsessed with Peterson, who didn't know him.

He was arrested at his home in Pierce County two days after the murders, where detectives found blood-spattered clothing and items stolen from the Larsons' home.

If convicted, Carneh will face life in prison without the possibility of parole. King County prosecutors decided earlier not to seek the death penalty.

Carneh has been in and out of Western State Hospital since his arrest.

In late 2005, he was committed to Western State after a King County Superior Court judge ruled that he was not competent to stand trial and dismissed the murder charges.

State law required that the charges be dismissed, with the possibility of re-filing them at a later date, so there could be a civil commitment to the mental institution.

He has remained there since the ruling.

In October, King County prosecutors were notified by officials at Western State that Carneh's mental condition has improved to the point that he no longer needed constant supervision.

He was also eligible to earn permission to leave the hospital grounds, prosecutors were informed.

At that point, they decided to re-file the murder charges and requested a new competency hearing for Carneh.

Shortly before the original murder charges against Carneh were dismissed, Taelor's mother Lorraine Marks said, "It's unbelievable to me. He wrote the book on how to commit murder and get away with it.... I'm furious with the system."