Washington (CNN) -- Are James V. McVay's statements the shocking confessions of a man who planned to kill the president? The exaggerated claims of someone seeking attention? The rantings of a lunatic? Police, prosecutors and others are asking those questions after McVay, 41, was charged in the vicious stabbing death of a 75-year-old woman in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Stopped by police Saturday near Madison, Wisconsin, some 450 miles away from the killing, McVay confessed not only to the stabbing, but to a crime he said he hoped to commit: the assassination of a president. In statements to police, and in an unusual jailhouse interview with reporters, McVay said:
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James V. McVay says a South Dakota slaying was the first step in his plan
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The final step, he tells a reporter, was to kill Obama "at the golf range"
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A judge orders a competency evaluation of McVay
McVay waived his right to remain silent and continued talking, police said, outlining his plan to travel to @placeholder to kill Obama.